Italian Women Politicians Unite in Confronting the Culture of Male Violence
The murder of a 22-year-old student in Italy, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend, has sparked national outrage. Even political adversaries, the far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and left-wing opposition leader Elly Schlein, have set aside their differences to join the campaign.
This is reported by Politico.
Thousands are expected to gather in Rome and other major cities this weekend as part of what organizers call a "revolution" addressing Italy's attitudes towards masculinity and violence against women, occurring approximately every three days.
The national introspection follows the murder of Giulia Cecchettin, an engineering student at the University of Padua, and the arrest of her ex-boyfriend Filippo Turetta. This week, tens of thousands of people took to the streets, protesting against Italy's "patriarchal" culture and demanding improved women's safety measures from the government.
Schlein called Meloni and proposed setting aside their differences to work together on preventing domestic violence. As a result, a vote was unanimously passed on Wednesday to strengthen legislation, including restraining orders—an extraordinary outcome in Italian politics.
Cecchettin's body was found on November 18 near a lake with multiple stab wounds after widely covered media searches. Her family blamed the patriarchal society that tolerates the normalization of toxic male behavior, characterizing those committing femicides as "children of patriarchy and rape culture." According to government data, over 100 women have been killed in Italy this year, with half of them murdered by their partners or ex-partners.
Activists accuse the culture of normalizing violent jealousy. Until 1981, the country's criminal code showed exceptional leniency towards the killing of "wives, daughters, and sisters caught in extramarital or premarital sex," with media still referring to such cases as "crimes of passion."
Schlein, who is in a relationship with a woman, has made feminism one of the pillars of her successful campaign for leadership in the Democratic Party. She pledged to improve access to abortion and fight against LGBT+ discrimination.
As Italy's first female prime minister, Meloni's career demonstrates that women can rise to the top. While she does not claim to be a feminist, she emphasizes growing up in a family of strong women and insists that women must prove they deserve respect on equal terms with men.
As reported by The Gaze, transgender women, many of them Latin American migrants working in the sex industry, joined over a thousand other poor and homeless individuals in the Vatican's hall as guests of Francis for a special meal on the Catholic Church's World Day of the Poor. They were served a full meal, including pasta with spinach and ricotta, meatballs in tomato-basil sauce, mashed cauliflower, and tiramisu for dessert.