Spanish Oddities
If you only have one ball, you can't be in the Spanish Civil Guard
By h.b.
Jun 3, 2008 - 8:19 AM

If you only have one ball, a sexually transmitted disease, flat feet, a high-pitched voice, diabetes or psoriasis or if you suffer from migraines or stutter, you cannot be a member of the Spanish Guardia Civil. El País reports today that the list of prohibitions was drawn up in 1988 and describes them as ‘quite questionable’.

The paper claims that people have been refused admission to the force in the past simply because they have a scar, and say that now some patients associations are trying to get the list, seen as obsolete and prejudiced, changed.

There was some progress in 2005 however when people who stutter were finally described as being apt for service as a Civil Guard.