Several protests and vigils were held across Italy and a national rally has been called on Saturday in the capital Rome which also marks the International Day against gender violence.
The recent killing of a 22-year-old student at the hands of her ex-boyfriend has highlighted the issue of violence against women in Italy – triggering a heated debate across the country.
More than one hundred women have been killed in Italy since the beginning of the year. These episodes are often referred to as femicides. The word ‘femicide’ refers to the murder of a woman because of her gender. For a number of reasons is very difficult to have an estimate of the overall number of this type of murder in the rest of Europe but what we can say is that Italy is not the country with the highest number of femicides in the European Union.
Nonetheless, the case became the centre of a social media storm that is not yet over. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has vowed to raise more public awareness on the issue and, as a consequence, the Italian parliament just approved a new law introducing more protections for women.
Several protests and vigils were held across Italy and a national rally has been called on Saturday in the capital Rome which also marks the International Day against gender violence.
Euronews spoke to Benedetta Rossi of “Non Una di Menoâ a feminist movement which is also the main organiser of the event take a listen:
“I think we have reached a turning point. More and more people are becoming aware of the issue and I think that an increased number of people from now on will join our protests,” Rossi said.
“We keep hearing a lot of pledges coming from political leaders that are not doing enough to tackle the problem. All they do is step up protections which doesnât solve the problem. What we need to do is to generate a new awareness around this problem and understand that this patriarchal culture is part of a system that limits usâ.