Gender-based violence is a public and collective issue.
A Manifesto, Ten Points: Male Violence Against Women Must Be Combated
only with a gender perspective
The Feminist and Transfeminist Manifesto It reiterates, once again, how gender violence is a public issue that affects all of society; overcoming it, in fact, requires a shared awareness, concerted action, and a cultural revolution. It is now well known that to eradicate violence against women and gender-based violence, it is necessary to address its causes by effecting a structural overhaul of the economic, social, and cultural relations upon which society is founded.
A collective journey that saw the participation – in addition to the 88 members of the Rete D.i.Re – also from dozens of organizations, a rallying call for women and individuals who recognize the nature of violence and its origins in the disparity of power between men and women and in patriarchy.
"Preventing and combating male violence against women and gender-based violence means recognizing the feminist thinking and practice of anti-violence centers, not as service providers, but as political places of change." declares Cristina Carelli, president of D.i.Re - Women on the Net against violence. "To state this more firmly,"Carelli continues"We have promoted an alliance with many different realities and subjectivities: together we affirm that male violence against women and gender-based violence is a social fact that must be addressed with a gender perspective, rejecting attempts to neutralize the political intervention of feminist and transfeminist centers.”. The president concludes: “Our manifesto is a starting point for a broad mobilization in the various areas in which we must produce our cultural revolution.".
For Francesca De Masi, president of Be Free: “The challenge that anti-violence centers are responding to forcefully is one of renewed radicalism—of practices, languages, and alliances—because we aren't content to simply provide services, but we also aspire to change the world, to free it from patriarchal violence. To do so, our watchwords must necessarily be feminist, transfeminist, and intersectional.. "
"Preventing violence means acting before it occurs, making primary prevention a structural part of all public policies. This means concretely applying gender mainstreaming, systematically integrating a gender perspective at every stage: from needs analysis to planning, from implementation to impact assessment. Only policies designed, coordinated, and transformative in this way, capable of promoting gender equality in every area of life and for people of all ages, can generate profound cultural change and put an end to male violence against women..” thus Katia Scannavini, Co-Secretary General of ActionAid Italy.
For Monica Pasquino, president of Educare alle differenza: “Educating about differences adheres to the feminist and transfeminist plan promoted by D.i.Re, recognizing in the manifesto a vision that is also ours: gender violence is structural and can only be fought by acting together, with transfeminist and intersectional policies. We have always worked on first-level prevention: deconstructing stereotypes, educating about relationships and consent is the only way to truly combat gender violence. We will continue to do so in schools and communities, building daily political alliances for freedom.
This is why today we strongly oppose this government and the Valditara bill, which once again attempts to impose censorship and control on schools: precisely when the Plan reminds us that without continuous, free, and competent sexual-emotional education, no cultural change is possible.”
"The alliance between feminist and transfeminist associations is a political fact that unites relationships and practices in full recognition of their shared identities. Their knowledge must be recognized as an essential resource for the social, political, and economic evolution of the country, taken into account and applied at various levels of intervention by central and local governments, across all political lines, as a factor in the country's growth. The support and homogeneous diffusion of feminist anti-violence centers and their transformative practices, drivers of change and social well-being, must be guaranteed as primary objectives of sound state and local policies, with the systematic and structural application of economic resources according to the needs identified by them." thus Rossella Mariuz, Vice President of UDI Bologna
"Over these nine years of Non Una Di Meno, feminist and transfeminist CAVs have been an essential resource, not only for managing processes to escape violence but also for building the political process, skills, knowledge, and understanding that have allowed us to critically reflect on violence and institutional policies. Therefore, we are concerned about attempts to neutralize this history and methodology by exposing anti-violence centers to the technical logic of the third sector and public tenders that deny the specificity of the CAVs' feminist experience. We participated in the process of developing the Manifesto promoted by the Network. D.i.Re to continue cultivating the alliances that allow us to defend what we have built and relaunch together our common struggle against patriarchal violence" is the position of Non Una Di Meno.
Roberta Mori, National Spokesperson for the Democratic Women's Conference, states: “The National Conference of Democratic Women wholeheartedly supports the Manifesto of the D.i.ReBecause it recognizes male violence against women as a structural problem, rooted in power inequalities, which can only be overcome with a transversal political commitment that brings about profound cultural change. We support anti-violence centers not only as socio-cultural centers, but also as spaces of freedom and self-determination that we choose to strengthen together as an alliance between women and society as a whole. No transformation is possible without a united, competent, and supportive feminist and trans-feminist network.. "