Pilar Rahola i Martínez is a Spanish journalist, writer, and former politician and MP.
Career
Rahola studied Spanish and CatalanPhilology at the Universitat de Barcelona. She has published several books in Spanish and Catalan, and she is a columnist at La Vanguardia in Spain, and collaborated with conservative newspapers like La Nación in Argentina, and Diario de América in the United States. She appears frequently on television and has taken part in several university lectures. She comes from a republican and anti-fascist family, and several of her relatives have been politicians or writers: Pere Rahola, minister of the navy of the republic; Frederic Rahola, first Síndic de Greuges in the Generalitat de Catalunya; and Carles Rahola, a writer executed by Francoists. Rahola is married and has three children, two of them adopted: one from Barcelona, the others from Siberia. From 1987 to 1990, Rahola was director of the Catalan publishing house Pòrtic, and as a journalist, she was involved in covering the Eritrean-Ethiopian War, the Balkan Wars, the Gulf War, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. As a politician, she was the only member of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya in Spanish Congress of Deputies representing Barcelona Province in the 5th and 6th Spanish legislatures from 1993 to 2000, as well as serving as vice-mayor of Barcelona city. She also participated in several committees of investigation, especially those related to political corruption such as the comisión Roldán. In 1996, Rahola left Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya to join Àngel Colom and Joan Laporta in a new political group, the "Partit per la Independència," but after this failed she decided to concentrate on journalism and writing. Her areas of interest include women's rights, international human rights, and animal rights. In recent years she has spoken of what she considers to be the hypocrisy of left wing politicians who do not share her views with regard to Israel and Zionism. In 2013 the Jewish National Fund planted a forest with 2,500 trees in her honor in Yatir, in the Negev. Since 2013 she is a member of the Catalonia's National Transition, official Committee of the Catalan government who works for a referendum on self-determination of Catalonia. She is a strong supporter for Catalan's right of self-determination and independence.
In 2013 the Jewish National Fund planted a forest with 2,500 trees in her honor in Yatir, in the Negev
.-In 2014, the Catalan Police Corps, the Mossos d'Esquadra, awarded it with the distinctive "Mossa d'Honor".21 It is also distinguished by the distinction of the Forum Carlemany, a grouping of Catalan businessmen. .- In 2017 She won the Ramon Llull de les Lletres Catalanes prize, awarded by Planeta, the most important prize in Catalan literature, for her novel Rosa de Cendra
Fake PhD Scandal
Until the summer of 2013, the English and Spanish version of Pilar Rahola's CV on her website claimed that she had received a PhD in Spanish and Catalan Philology from the University of Barcelona. This title was used when introducing her in countless prizes, television interviews and books. During 10 years she never corrected this information even though she had only received a bachelor's degree. When this misinformation was brought to her attention she claimed it was due an error when translating her original Catalan CV.
