Italy on Saturday marked the
International Day for the elimination of violence against women
amid the backdrop of ongoing public anger and dismay over the
murder of 22-year-old Giulia Cecchettin by her ex boyfriend
Filippo Turetta on November 11, the latest of a long string of
femicides and other acts of gender-based violence in the
country.
Planned events included processions, runs, walks, flash mobs,
sit-ins, free gynaecological examinations and, above all, a lot
of noise in a symbolic bid to break the silence on gender-based
violence and patriarchy in Italy.
In Rome the feminist movement Non Una Di Meno has organized a
march starting in Circo Massimo at 2:30 pm local time and ending
in Piazza San Giovanni, where participants will rattle their
keys.
The Lower House and Senate have also organised open-door events
with the testimonies of women survivors of violence, and on
Saturday evening the facade of the upper house of parliament
will be lit up in red in memory of victims.
In Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala is attending an event titled
'Patriarchy Kills' and 80,000 bread bags carrying the emergency
numbers of the Hara-Bollate and Rho anti-violence centre will be
distributed under the initiative 'Violence cannot be daily
bread' involving more than 100 bakers in 17 municipalities in
the Milan area.
Other events have been lined up in Turin Genoa, Bologna,
Florence, Cagliari, Bari, Naples, Messina, Palermo and many
other towns and cities up and down the country, as the public
and private soul-searching continues into the reasons behind
Cecchettin's and how to prevent similar tragedies from happening
again.
"You are the future, and each one of you has been trying to work
out what was lacking at all levels, from teachers to students,
to parents, because I too am asking myself questions," said Gino
Cecchettin, Giulia's father, on Friday, addressing hundreds of
students gathered in the courtyard of the Padua university
faculty where his daughter studied biomedical engineering and
had been due to graduate last Thursday for the unveiling of a
red bench in memory of all victims of violence against women.
"Maybe by exchanging ideas we can work out what can be done,
find a protocol, a way to eliminate violence, especially
violence against women," he added.
"Today we are here for Giulia, and we must remember that
something must come out of this tragic event," he continued.
The messages, the silence, the noise "are fine", he said, "but
those will come to an end.
"I want each one of us to look every day at what we can do to
improve our own lives, not with respect to ourselves but to our
loved ones, our neighbours, our friends, and above all to
women," said Cecchettin. "
Nothing will bring Giulia back, but I want many good initiatives
to come out of her death," he concluded.
On Friday Premier Giorgia Meloni also renewed her pledge to
continue to fight violence against women, describing it as an
"intolerable phenomenon that must be fought at 360 degrees".
"I am proud of the law that was voted by all the political
forces (in parliament)," continued Meloni, referring to the new
anti-violence and anti-stalking norms approved definitively by
the Senate on Wednesday.
"There are areas where sharing can make a difference," she
added.
"We have other initiatives ready, we will not stop until
violence against women stops, it is something that is
incompatible with our present," concluded Meloni.
On Wednesday the Senate gave unanimous approval, with 157 votes
in favour, to a government bill on violence against women,
making it the law of the land.
The law, drafted by Family and Equal Opportunities and Family
Minister Eugenia Roccella, ups protection for women in danger
and the survivors of gender-based violence.
The package, which was signed off by the government in June and
approved by the Lower House in October, includes new restraining
orders and heightened surveillance on men guilty of domestic
violence and it also boosts the emergency gender-violence
hotline.
The measures aim to interrupt the "cycle of violence" and to
"act promptly and effectively" according to Roccella.
The government and opposition agreed on two motions accelerating
the passage of the bill in the Senate amid the outcry sparked by
the femicide of Cecchettin.
Meanwhile, the National Research Council (CNR) said that more
than 12 million women in Italy, equal to almost 51%, between the
ages of 18 and 84, have experienced physical or psychological
violence at least once in their lifetime, but that only 5% have
reported the incident.
In a study carried out by the CNR's Institute of Clinical
Physiology of the National Research Council (CNR) in 2022, over
2.5 million women (10.1%) reported currently experiencing
situations of psychological violence and 80,000 (0.3%) said they
were currently undergoing physical violence.
The victims of violence were mainly women under 60 years of age
with a medium-high level of education, a job and an average
income and who were married and living with their partner,
according to the study.
Over half had children.
CNR said the data on gender-based violence in Italy provide
"evidence of a particularly extensive and only partly visible
phenomenon".
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