Speaking on International Women's Day, Italian president Sergio Mattarella said Friday that the condition of women within a country shows the degree of civilization it has achieved.
He also stressed that the outlawing of prostitution was an important step in liberating women and that action must be taken against continuing high levels of violent crime against women by their intimate partners.
"Congratulating women (on this day) means addressing the entire national community because the female component is both an essential and a decisive part of our society," he said. "For this reason, the founding values of our life together are celebrated on March 8.
"These values are marked by the achievements made, often through a great deal of effort and amid myriad difficulties, by women themselves. "The condition of women is one of the elements that attest to the degree of civilization that a country has achieved." He went on to say that "there are lessons from the past that are important to reflect on. Sixty-eight years ago, a state law promoted by a female senator, a partisan and a constituent, declared the exploitation of prostitution illegal." "She had to fight, in Parliament and outside of it, against prejudices and unacceptable stereotypes that die hard. There were members of parliament that claimed that some women were 'born prostitutes' and that they would thus never change. That law was an important step on the road towards women's liberation. Today that senator, Lina Merlin, would be on the frontline against the trafficking seen in these times of ours." Mattarella also lashed out at the rampant gender-based violence by intimate partners in Italy.
"We cannot continue to sit and just watch the violence in homes and in the streets. Yesterday two women - Alessandra and Fortuna - were murdered. This violence is produced by distorted and criminal mentalities about possession and domination," he stressed.
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