The two Spains

Celebration cut short: Spain’s forward Jennifer Hermoso (centre) celebrating the country’s World Cup win with fellow teammates, midfielder Alexia Putellas (left) and defender Irene Paredes. It is sad that the team’s historic achievement has been overshadowed by the the country’s federation president Luis Rubiales’ kissing scandal. — AFP

FOR Spain, lifting the Women’s World Cup should have been a moment of celebration.

Instead it laid bare the toxic masculinity that still pervades the euro’s fourth-biggest economy more than 40 years after the end of Franco’s dictatorship in 1975 – a period when the country went through radical social change that saw it become one of the world’s most progressive nations.