European activists are seeking to right a wrong so ingrained in our history that it has become a part of pop culture and political discourse: witch hunts.
Campaigns are growing across the continent to rehabilitate people—overwhelmingly women—executed for alleged witchcraft from the mid-1400s into the early 1800s. But the efforts aren’t only about addressing centuries-old injustices. Some advocates, most recently inspired by the #MeToo movement, also aim to draw attention to modern cases of discrimination and victimization of women.
The term “witch hunt” has lost so much significance that #MeToo movement founder Tarana Burke observed on Twitter in 2018 that the term is the “#1 complaint” aimed at her own campaign—though witch hunts were generally conducted by powerful men against powerless women, the very dynamic that #MeToo aims to end.
Europe’s rehabilitation movement comes three centuries behind America, where the Massachusetts Bay province in 1711 exonerated most of the accused witches in the infamous Salem trials that took place two decades earlier. While most of Europe had abolished witch trials by the end of the 18th century, records show that accused women were still being put to death decades later.
Witch hunts began in the Middle Ages, when the Catholic Church targeted people suspected of consorting with the devil. Among the earliest were the Valais witch trials of 1428, in modern Switzerland, chronicled by a Lucerne city scribe. The evidence and methods of extracting confessions there led to a 1475 book, “Formicarius,” which postulates that witches are primarily women because of what the author describes as their physical, mental and moral inferiority.
Who alive today in America thinks hanging or burning or stoning anyone for “witchcraft” is a good thing? No one!
Hey, ya know, if they don’t float with rocks tied to their ankles, what ya gonna do?!
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Poland (mentioned in article) has 1 (in words:ONE) documented witchcraft trial!!!!! versus millions in Europe and America!
The essay writer should not roughly categorize Asia and Africa where each country is different like European nations and Americas. Japan is very safe while Myanmar is now in jeopardy: both are in Asia
Witch hunts are everywhere these days.
there have been so many events in history that have shown how low humanity has gone or the lack of.....
Witches are an inminnent and always danger for our loved persons. Please don't be fooled in your political correctness.
Wasting of time....why not start from slavery of black peoples
Just refer to Trumps doubleimpeachment and you will get the point!
Now we celebrate and dress to be like one of them...who knows what the future holds...events will unfold and history will stand
thank you very much for your work
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