SPAIN'S WOMEN SPARKS

LOUDLY banging pots and pans, a few hundred women protesters gathered in Madrid in the early hours of Friday to mark the start of International Women Day.

The women - wearing purple bags and clothes, and holding banners that read : ''Sister I do believe you'' - met  at midnight   in Puerta del Sol square in the heart of  of the  Spanish capital, in one of the first protests  in Europe to commemorate  the day and call for more gender equality.

Purple has in recent years been a signature color of women's rights protesters.

''It's essential to demonstrate and more in a day like a women's day because there are still a lot of  gaps and problems in society that women face and need to overcome. We are in a patriarchal society,''  said Abril Vilatrollol, a 21-year old cinema student protesting in the square.

She added that sometimes the fears for her safety when heading home after partying at night, and argued that there is clear discrimination against women in  the  cinema sector.

Larger rallies are expected  in Spain later on Friday during a general strike, at a time when gender inequality has become a divisive issue ahead of an April 28 parliamentary election.

New  Far-right party  Vox, which according to opinion polls would for the first time win seats in a parliamentary election, has  called for the scrapping of Spain's gender violence laws, one of its trademark proposals.

The conservative Partido Popular will not take part in major March demonstrations, arguing that they have been  politicized  by the left. Socialists  have made   gender equality a  top priority of his nine month government and reelection campaign. [Agencies]