The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
WITCHES’ JUSTICE
Michael Alexander speaks to Dundee-based top lawyer Claire Mitchell QC and Newport writer Zoe Venditozzi, who are seeking posthumous justice for Scotland’s 16th to 18th Century ‘witches’
When Dundee-based Claire Mitchell QC and Newport writer Zoe Venditozzi launched their Witches of Scotland (WoS) campaign on International Women’s Day last year, its aims were to secure a legal pardon, an apology and a national monument for the thousands of people – mostly women – that were convicted of witchcraft and executed Scotland between 1563 and 1736.
The campaign has captured the public’s imagination with 3,470 women – and men – signing a petition over the past year that has been passed to the Scottish Parliament for consideration.
In March this year, in the first government move of its kind, the Scottish Government responded by acknowledging historic injustice against women, stating: “There are clearly similarities between the injustices of those convicted in a discriminatory manner in for same-sex sexual activity and the injustices of women classed as witches many centuries ago which could justify legislative steps being taken in this area”.
While the WoS campaign is about securing justice for the 4,000 people accused of witchcraft and the 2,500 executed in Scotland between the 16th and 18th Centuries, the organisers believe its aims are just as relevant to the treatment of women worldwide today.
The kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard in London on March 15 and the “heavyhanded and misogynist” response from the police when a vigil was held afterwards has heightened debate about the right to protest and the wider role of women in the 21st Century.
However, the WoS campaign also illustrates that allegations of witchcraft against women and children persist worldwide with the United Nations recently warning of a “significant increase” in accusations of witchcraft scapegoating.
Last year in the UK, allegations of witchcraft – mainly in the African and Asian diaspora – were a factor in the abuse of 2,080 at-risk children, a rise of 7% from the previous year.
The Metropolitan Police has voiced concerns that children have been targeted by malevolent forces looking for a reason to blame someone for “illness, death, job losses or financial struggles” related to Covid.
Hundreds of women have been banished to “witch camps” in Ghana, thousands have been killed for alleged sorcery in India and Saudi Arabia has an anti-witchcraft police unit.
Claire Mitchell, who specialises in miscarriages of justice and describes herself
on Twitter as a “probable witch”, says the driver of the WoS campaign is to right the wrongs of Scotland’s 16th-18th Century Witchcraft Act, during which time those convicted were often strangled to death and then burned at the stake.
However, by facing up to its past, she believes Scotland can also act as a beacon of compassion and hope to other countries today.
“For years I have been interested in Scotland’s witchcraft trials,” explains Claire, 49, in an interview with The Courier.
“You can’t help but work in the Old Town of Edinburgh and have an interest in miscarriages of justice. You can’t have an interest in Scottish history and not be interested in the witchcraft trials.
“I know there have been calls for memorials in the past as far back as 2008. But the real impetus for me to do something about it came when I read a book – a genuinely transformative book in a way – by Sara Sheridan called Where Are the Women? She brilliantly re-imagined Scotland as a place where all the women get street names and all the statues were to women.
“The book is called Where Are the Women? because it’s obviously acknowledging that we don’t have that in our society – the places are named after men essentially.”
Born and raised in Glasgow where she attended Holyrood Secondary in Govanhill, Claire studied law at Glasgow University then worked as a criminal lawyer in Maryhill. A lifelong feminist, she also worked women and children’s rights lawyer a as in