WEBVTT

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I want to dedicate this
reading to the three Portuguese

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Marias--

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Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria
Teresa Horta, and Maria Velho

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da Costa, who went on
trial in Portugal today

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for having written
and published a book.

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The title of the book is
The New Portuguese Letters.

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And it was written collectively
by the three women.

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It consists of essays,
poems, stories, and dialogues

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which speak of women's
experience and women's

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oppression, specifically
in Portugal,

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but with meaningful women
everywhere on the planet.

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The book was published
on April 1st 1972.

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And it was seized in May by the
political police and banned.

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The authors were
arrested on charges

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of being an outrage to public
morals and good custom,

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a charge punishable by up
to two years in prison.

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And they were freed on
an unusually high bail,

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and were to have faced
trial last July 3.

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However the book had been
smuggled out of Portugal

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and taken to Paris, where
an international feminist

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conference was taking
place, and portions of it

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were translated and made
available to those women.

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And what followed
was the first series

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of international
feminist demonstrations

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before Portuguese consulates
and embassies in Paris, Rome,

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London, Boston, Chicago,
New York, San Francisco,

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and also in Lisbon itself.

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And the action resulted in
a postponement of the trial,

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which began today.

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The three Marias
are all published

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writers, all feminists,
all mothers of children.

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And in their book they have
written of women's isolation

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from each other,
their loneliness,

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their sexual exploitation, of
rape, marriage, prostitution,

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madness, of women's political
and economic condition,

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of adultery, of the
convent, of the denial

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of women's human
need for fulfillment,

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of abortion, and suicide.

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And this is the outrage
that they have committed.

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I've seen passages from
the book, which is now

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in the process of
being translated

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by a number of hands, and
they are truthful, eloquent,

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and unforgettable.

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There's no doubt in my
mind that this book will

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be a landmark in
the new literature

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that women are creating, and
in the history of our struggle

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to become ourselves.

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I don't know if any
of you have already

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been aware of this case.

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If anyone here is interested
in forming support groups,

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or lending support in any
way to the three Marias,

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I can-- if you'll
speak to me afterward,

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I can give you a couple
of names and addresses

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of people to contact.

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