The suppression of “New Portuguese Letters” became the first international feminist cause. Women round the world put pressure on the country’s government by signing petitions and writing letters
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskA few days later she turned up to lunch with two friends and fellow writers. They were appalled. “God, if a single woman has something like that happen to her because of a book of poetry,” Maria Velho da Costa said, “imagine if the three of us wrote a novel.” Ms Horta was enthusiastic about the idea; the third woman, Maria Isabel Barreno, was more cautious. Yet when they next met, Barreno had begun the book.
They called the book “New Portuguese Letters” and, seeing it as a joint endeavour, did not identify their contributions. Using a sometimes bewildering cast of characters, they comment on the subjugation of women in the home, misogynist laws, sexual and domestic violence, abortion, the Catholic church and the colonial wars Portugal was waging in Africa. They anticipated a backlash, but “the machismo of the Portuguese had to be made clear,” says Ms Horta, now 85.
But word of the women’s persecution, and the stifling of free speech in Portugal, got out. A friend of Barreno smuggled copies of the book into France and sent them to feminist writers including Christiane Rochefort, who publicised the case. French newspapers published excerpts of the text, which was shared among women’s liberation groups. In Britain authors including Doris Lessing, Iris Murdoch and Jean Rhys wrote to theexpressing their disgust with the trio’s treatment.
The regime was “internationally discredited by the negative publicity of the Marias’ case”, says Hilary Owen of Oxford and Manchester universities. At home, the furore fed a dissenting mood. Already unpopular for its costly, grim wars in Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique, the dictatorship was overthrown in a military coup on April 25th 1974.
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