The first item Opus Dei gave 12-year-old Andrea Martínez was a pink dress. The second was a schedule that detailed every task for every minute of her day. Then, when she was 16, she was given a cilice – a spiked metal chain to wear around her thigh – and a whip.
In the late 1980s, Opus Dei, a secretive and ultra-conservative Catholic organisation, promised Martínez an escape from a life of poverty in rural Argentina. By attending one of their schools, they said, she would receive an education and opportunities.
“They told me I would study and progress. I thought with an education that later I would be able to help my family,” says Martínez, 50.
“But I became like a slave. They treated me like a slave, without any capacity to think or act or do.”
Martínez, along with dozens of other women in Argentina, has accused Opus Dei – which has a presence in more than 70 countries but is strongest in Spain, Italy and Latin America – of coercing them as children and adolescents into a life of domestic servitude.
They say they were forced into working up to 12-hour days, cooking and cleaning for the elite members, without pay.
The women also say they faced extreme control, their letters were censored, and they were banned from reading anything but children’s books or religious texts. When they eventually escaped, the women say they were left without money, clothes or qualifications.
Hellbound and Down 