Shocked by Giuliaìs murder, Italy marks violence against women day

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 25 - 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". (ANSA).