In the last 24 hours, three women have been killed in Italy by partners or former partners: one of these, right in our area. The news caused a stir: everyone talks about the fact, but few highlight its gravity and social weight.
The data of the Istat survey on women's safety commissioned by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Department for Equal Opportunities show that "violence against women is a wide and widespread phenomenon and nearly 7 million women have suffered a any form of physical or sexual violence ", pointing out that" it is the current or former partners who commit the most serious violence ".
Even today, only 7% of women who have suffered violence report the incident. It is truly disconcerting that 93 out of 100 women still live in silence. This for various reasons, all linked to the intrinsic dynamics of violence. Fear, economic dependence, isolation, homelessness, social disapproval often even by the same family of origin are just some of the many factors that make it difficult for women to interrupt the situation in which they find themselves.
It is believed that violence against women only affects disadvantaged, marginalized and deprived social groups. Instead it is a transversal phenomenon that affects every social, economic and cultural stratum without differences of age, religion and race.
Mutatis mutandis, the same reality is photographed every year by the Regional Social Observatory of Tuscany, which receives the data on the activity carried out by the Anti-violence Centers throughout the Region.
In 2017, the Antiviolence Center of Valdichiana Senese alone (Associazione Amica Donna) welcomed 56 women victims of violence: these are new cases, which are added to those known since past years.
The woman killed in these hours in Montepulciano was not among those followed by the Center, but nevertheless the operators and consultants of the Center were struck by deep sorrow for the death of a woman killed so brutally only because she was free to make decisions independently.
For more than 10 years the Amica Donna Association has been welcoming and accompanying
women in the difficult path of the exit from situations of violence in intimate relationships, implements
awareness campaigns on the problem, not only towards adults, but also towards the majority
Young people.
The lack of knowledge of the phenomenon, of the dynamics and of its diffusion, the conviction
rooted that violence in intimate relationships is a "private fact" and not a crime, the presence of
preconceptions about the co-responsibility of women in violence are all arguments that lead to
deem it a priority to take all appropriate measures, especially in the field of education, for
change the social and cultural patterns of behavior of men and women and to eliminate
prejudices, customary practices and any other practice based on the idea of inferiority or of
superiority of one of the two sexes and stereotyped roles for men and women.
The Amica Donna Association, due to its social role, cannot exempt itself
from noting, once again, that violence against women is a social, cultural and
an economic complex that can and must be faced in a logic of network and involvement
active of each - citizens and institutions - without being dismissed as a “problem of
women ”: in order to eradicate it, the cultural, social and economic rules of the different people need to be changed
social systems and this can only be done with the full involvement of society.
Women's lives are endangered by the daily culture of oppression of the
men, men who even kill because they are unable to sustain the emotional relationship e
who do not accept and deny the freedom of women. Killing is easier than dealing with conflict,
to question oneself, to recognize dignity and respect for women.
It is essential that the problem is known in its actual meaning so that
each of us can take an active part in combating violence against women, in the various fields in
which he works: at school, in institutions, in church, in the family, proposing models of relationships between the
genres in which it is no longer possible to confuse possession and violence with love.
Our community hit by this tragedy, open its eyes to a reality that often does not
we want to see, that instead it crosses us deeply, as the numbers testify, and that, for
be addressed, it must be understood and deepened. There is a need for active citizenship e
attentive, of present and determined institutions, of a network whose subjects are trained to understand
phenomenon of gender-based violence and really intend to identify and fight it.
Also this time a woman was killed and a child suffered violence
very heavy. Many times the family is not a place of love and harmony, it is not if there is a lack of respect
and equality in the couple, if those stereotypes that still exist within it are reproduced
society 'has not surpassed and often presents as "traditional values".
So while we mourn this new feminicide, let us ask everyone for a moment
profound reflection on the phenomenon of gender-based violence, so that a thrust may arise from it
activate.
All of us and in particular the subjects responsible for stemming and fighting this drama of ours
social.
The President of Amica Donna
Assumed Bigelli