Devendra Kumar
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Italy’s major cities on Saturday to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, as an Italian man suspected of killing his ex-girlfriend was extradited from Germany. The killing of 22-year-old Giulia Cecchettin has sparked outrage across Italy, where on average one woman is killed every three days. Cecchettin’s former boyfriend, Filippo Turetta, 21, was arrested in Germany and was transferred to a prison in Verona to face questioning in the investigation into her death.
Cecchettin had disappeared after meeting Turetta for a burger at a shopping mall near Venice, and her body was found on November 18, covered by black plastic bags in a ditch near a lake in the foothills of the Alps. The killing has sparked an unprecedented wave of grief and anger in Italy, where many women say patriarchal attitudes are still entrenched. The data from the Italian Interior Ministry shows that 106 women have been killed in Italy this year, 55 of them allegedly by a partner or former partner.
The protests, which were organized by the anti-violence feminist association Non Una Di Meno, remembered Cecchettin and her story, with many women sharing their personal experiences with violence and abuse. Thousands of men also joined the protests, showing solidarity with the women’s movement against gender violence. The Italian parliament has approved new measures to clamp down on violence against women, including a campaign in schools to address sexism, machismo, and psychological and physical violence against women.
Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella called for a human society that aspires to be civilized cannot accept or endure the string of attacks on women and murders. Pope Francis also marked the occasion, saying that violence against women is a plague that must be rooted out from society and called for educational action. Globally, violence against women and girls remains one of the most pervasive human rights violations, with over 700 million women subjected to physical and sexual partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both, at least once in their life.
The protests in Italy and Paris, where thousands gathered to demand more government action to prevent gender violence, highlight the ongoing struggle to end violence against women and challenge societal attitudes that condone and perpetuate it.