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A Green Party councillor has demanded the pardon of 17th-century witches who were executed for “misogyny, not magic”.
Stuart Jeffery, the leader of Maidstone borough council, has written to Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, requesting legislation to pardon women executed under the 1562 Witchcraft Act.
He said the women, including seven hanged at Penenden Heath, Kent, in 1652, were executed because of “their social status, gender and perceived non-conformity” and that their deaths were “acts of murder”.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Maidstone Borough Council said: “We’re calling on the Home Secretary to pardon hundreds of women executed under the Witchcraft Act, including seven local women hanged at Penenden Heath in 1652”.
“Their persecution was rooted in misogyny, not magic. These women were poor, single, widowed, or healers, not criminals. They weren’t witches. They were women who had no one to speak for them”.
In the letter, Mr Jeffery drew parallels between women executed for witchcraft and those persecuted for same-sex relationships.
He said a pardon could be granted in a similar way to Turing’s Law, passed in 2013 and named after mathematician Alan Turing, which gave posthumous pardons to thousands of people convicted of homosexual acts.
“These historic acts of murder cannot be undone, but those women could be granted a general pardon by a similar route,” Mr Jeffery said.
