Virgínia Moura

From 1944 Moura was an active participant in the struggle against the Estado Novo. She was a member of the Movement of National Antifascist Unity (MUNAF), which was a political platform of groups opposed to the government that was strongly influenced by the Communist party; the Movement of Democratic Unity (MUD), which played a similar role; and the National Democratic Movement (MND), which supported opposition candidates for the National Assembly. She was also active with the National Council of Portuguese Women and the Associação Feminina Portuguesa para a Paz (Portuguese Women's Peace Association). The latter was dissolved by the Estado Novo in 1952.^[5] In an environment where women were subordinated to their husbands and in some cases still could not vote, and in a country which had the highest child mortality in Europe, women and their status in Portugal was a common theme of Moura's work. Her "Letter to a Modern Woman" (Carta a Uma Mulher Moderna) was a call to women to participate actively in political life.^[3]

First arrested on 17 December 1949, Moura was tried for "treason to the Motherland" in 1951, for having signed a declaration that demanded that President Salazar negotiate with the Indian government regarding the Portuguese colonies of Goa, Daman and Diu. In total, she was arrested sixteen times by the PIDE, the Portuguese secret police, prosecuted nine times, convicted three times and also repeatedly assaulted by the police. The last arrest was in 1962.^[1][5] She became well-respected in Porto to the point that in 1950 women in Bolhão Market went on strike to demand her release from prison. At a trial in 1952 messages of support from Eugénie Cotton, a French scientist and President of the Women's International Democratic Federation, and Irène Joliot-Curie, daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie and President of the World Peace Council, were read out in court.^[6]

She, herself, was held in prison in Porto, in PIDE offices, and in Lisbon's Caxias Prison. Senior male Communist party members were also held in the Peniche Fortress, and Moura organised a protest by wives of political prisoners against the harsh conditions in which they were kept.^[6]

Moura supported the Presidential campaigns of Norton de Matos in 1949, of Ruy Luís Gomes in 1951, and of Humberto Delgado in 1958 and was a charismatic speaker at public meetings. She became a member of the Central Committee of the PCP and remained in hiding, but also found time to write newspaper and magazine articles under the pseudonym of "Maria Selma". She was a founder of a magazine called O Sol Nascente (The Rising Sun). As an editor she was fined for having edited a book, Palavras necessárias (Necessary words), by the communist, Bento António Gonçalves.^[5][7]

The Carnation Revolution took place on 25 April 1974, resulting in the overthrow of the Estado Novo. On April 26, she was invited by the Armed Forces Movement (MFA), which had instituted the peaceful Revolution, to accompany them in the release of political prisoners at the PIDE headquarters, in Porto. Inside, "some terrified agents burned all the papers they could". After April 25 she continued her political activity as a member of the PCP and stood for election on several occasions, being elected to the councils of both Porto and Gondomar. In 1985 she was made a Grand Officer of the Order of Liberty (Portuguese: Ordem da Liberdade). This was followed by the receipt of the Medal of Honor from Porto City Council in 1988.^[6]

Virgínia Moura died on 19 April 1998, in Porto. The funeral of the lady known as the "Passionate Portuguese" was attended by thousands.

In 1999, a bust of Virgínia Moura, by the sculptor Manuel Dias, was inaugurated. The sculpture was placed in front of the building where the political police were based when she was arrested for the first time and was unveiled 50 years after that first arrest.

In Guimarães a group of schools bears her name and a street has been named after her, as have roads in several other locations throughout Portugal.^[3]