Isabel do Carmo

Isabel do Carmo ComL is a Portuguese doctor, writer and former university professor. She was part of an armed struggle against the Portuguese government, both before and after the overthrow of the repressive Estado Novo regime, and was held in prison from 1978 to 1982. Carmo has published extensively, on both medical and political issues.

Early life[]

Maria Isabel Augusta Cortes do Carmo was born in Barreiro, on the left bank of the River Tagus to the southeast of the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, on 12 September 1940. She took the ferry to go to High School in Lisbon and later graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. As a student and activist in the students' association of the Faculty of Medicine, she participated in student revolts in 1962, having been the first woman to speak at essentially male assemblies. After receiving a PhD from the same faculty, she practised medicine as an assistant physician at the Hospital de Santa Maria in the north of Lisbon.^[1][2]

Political activity[]

Carmo's political activities began when she was 15, when she joined the youth organization of the Movement of Democratic Unity (MUD), a quasi-legal organization that opposed the Estado Novo. In 1958, she took part in the campaign of the communist, , for the Presidency of the Republic. Vicente eventually withdrew in favour of Humberto Delgado. A year later she joined the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), where she was, in secret, a member of the leadership of the university sector and of the communist organization of doctors.^[1]

In 1969 she became a member of the Portuguese Democratic Movement (MUD). This was a coalition of political parties formed to oppose the Estado Novo in the widely manipulated national and local elections. In the same year she went to Paris, where she lived between October 1969 and March 1970 together with Carlos Antunes. At this time they founded the Brigadas Revolucionárias (Revolutionary Brigades). The PCP leader Álvaro Cunhal was also in Paris at this time. She would marry Antunes, who died from COVID-19 in January 2021. They had a son and a daughter. In 1970, she was excluded from her position as an assistant at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, by order of PIDE, Portugal's secret police. However, she continued to perform this position secretly and without remuneration, with the support of her professor. She was part of the executive of the Ordem dos Médicos (Order of Physicians) until 1972.^[1][2][3]

In 1973, after the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia made her disenchanted with the Soviet Union, and becoming frustrated with the PCP's unwillingness to carry out armed activities, Carmo founded, with Carlos Antunes and Pedro Goulart, the Partido Revolucionário do Proletariado - Brigadas Revolucionárias (Revolutionary Party of the Proletariat – Revolutionary Brigades - PRP-BR), which commenced to organize small-scale explosions. After the Carnation Revolution of April 1974, which overthrew the Estado Novo, the PRP-BR ceased armed activities but restarted them later in the year fearing that there was a right-wing plot to cease power. Carmo edited the party's newspaper Revolução (Revolution) until 1978 and was one of the most prominent figures in the Processo Revolucionário Em Curso (Ongoing Revolutionary Process - PREC). During that period, she was detained on several occasions by the police. On 10 September 1975, Carmo and Antunes received 1000 rifles diverted from the General Deposit of War Material, situated near Loures, which would eventually be used to arm the Revolutionary Brigades. These brigades became involved in "fund recovery" activities (through bank robberies and similar activities) as well as in the placing of explosive devices. These activities gave rise to the so-called "PRP case", which ended with the sentencing of several of those involved, including Antunes, Goulart and Carmo.^[1][2][4]

Arrested in 1978, and initially held in prison with her young son, Carmo was tried and sentenced in 1980 and released in 1982. Antunes was released in the same year. She has always denied that, apart from two of the members of PRP-BR who made a mistake when placing explosive devices and a passer-by who was accidentally killed by an explosion, no one died as a result of her activities. In 1985, she became active in the campaign to give an amnesty to Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho who had been a member of the Movement of Armed Forces, which had initiated the Carnation Revolution, but who had then gone on to lead an attempted coup on 25 November 1975.^[1][3][5][6]

Later life[]

Later, Carmo returned to work at the Hospital de Santa Maria, where she became director of the Endocrinology Service. She was also a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. She was founder of the Portuguese Society of Endocrinology, of the Portuguese Society of Diabetology and founder of the Portuguese Society for the Study of Obesity. She coordinated a study on the prevalence of Anorexia nervosa. She has also worked at the Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), an organization that evaluates and funds research activities in the natural sciences. She also has a private medical practice. In December 2020, Carmo contracted COVID-19 at the same time as her late husband, but recovered.^[1][3][7]

Awards and honours[]

• On 25 April 2004, on the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, Carmo was made a Commander of the Order of Liberty.

Publications[]

• Histórias que as Mulheres Contam - Testemunhos Reais (Stories Women Tell – Real Testimonials). 2015.^[8]
• A Luta Armada (Armed Struggle). 2018.^[5][9]
• As Vozes Insubmissas- A história das mulheres e dos homens que lutaram pela igualdade dos sexos quando era crime fazê-lo (The story of women and men who struggled for sexual equality when it was a crime to do so). 2004^[10]

Carmo's medical publications have largely been related to dietary matters:^[11]

• Saúde em Tempo de Risco, 1993
• Vida, Vírus e Vícios, 1994
• A Vida por um Fio - Anorexia Nervosa, 1994
• Magros, Gordinhos e Assim-Assim, 1997
• Doenças do Comportamento Alimentar, 2001
• Saber emagrecer, 2002
• Porque não Consigo Parar de Comer, 2003
• Alimentação saudável, alimentação segura (with Sara Rodi), 2002
• 222 Perguntas e Respostas para Emagrecer e Manter o Peso de uma Forma equilibrada, 2006
• Refeições, Marcas e Calorias, 2007
• Mulher 50 + 10 (co-author), 2007
• Os Alimentos, e Mitos que nos engordam, 2008
• Gorduchos e redondinhas (co-author), 2012
• Pensar perder o peso que pesa, 2013

References[]