The Carabinieri barracks in Vignobo (Venice) received a call at 11:18 p.m. on Saturday, November 18, reporting that there had been a fight between a man and a woman who got into a car and then drove away. In the car were Giulia Cecchettin and Filippo Turetta, two university engineering students who had recently ended a romantic relationship. But this wasn’t a fight, nor was the call simply a warning to the carabinieri. What happened, and this could have been discovered by law enforcement if they had bothered to be on the scene instead of prioritizing other cases, was the beginning of a sexist aggression that ended with the stabbing of the girl. And in reality, the call was a deafening warning to an entire country that has turned its back on sexist violence for decades and could have woken up now, after experiencing the last tragedy of its kind.
A few minutes after the first call, the police received another message, as the LaPresse agency published. It was a security guard from an industrial area in Fossò, a few kilometers from the site of the first incident, who reported the beating a girl received in front of the Dior warehouse he was guarding. The security cameras had recorded it and he had noticed it when it was too late when he looked at the pictures. The next time the telephone rang in the barracks at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, the carabinieri heard the voice of Gino Cecchettin, the father of the girl who was sitting in that car. The man wanted to warn about the disappearance of his daughter – a voluntary estrangement, he said – who by then had already died cruelly at the hands of his ex-partner. In the statement, she explained that her daughter had left her boyfriend but continued to see him because he was deeply depressed and feared he would harm himself.
The death of 22-year-old Giulia Cecchettin stirred things in an unusual way in Italy. Firstly, because of its peculiarities. Two little boys from wealthy families, students. Also because of the violence: the warehouse’s surveillance camera recorded the boy beating the victim and dragging him along the ground as he screamed, “You’re hurting me.” After complicated search efforts, the body was found in a canal next to Lake Barcis . The autopsy revealed that she had been stabbed in the head and neck and that she was attempting to defend herself as multiple wounds were noted on her arms and hands. Ultimately, the attacker fled by car to Germany as planned, where he ran out of gas and money and was arrested.
A group of people protest against the demonstration against violence against women that took place this Saturday in Rome.Cecilia Fabiano (LAPRESSE)
This year, 87 women were murdered in Italy due to sexist violence by family members or romantic partners. Last year there were 103 (49 in Spain). And it has also seen the current government, the first in history led by a woman (the far-right Giorgia Meloni), cut funding to prevent sexist violence by 70%. But more than that, the case of Giulia Cecchettin clearly shows the country’s patriarchal culture. According to the reconstruction of the victim’s friends, hours before her death, her ex-boyfriend asked her to slow down her pace in the race and forego passing certain tests in order not to humiliate him and not to make him appear as someone less brilliant and more talented than her (something that was obviously the case). The problem was not only the humiliation of being abandoned, but also the feeling of being intellectually inferior. She was clearly ignoring him and was supposed to graduate last Thursday.
The case of Giulia Cecchettin has other, partly positive aspects that make us think about possible change. It happened on the eve of the major demonstration against sexist violence this Saturday. It comes at a time when two women are at the head of the government and the opposition: Meloni and the social democrat Elly Schlein. And as the journalist Concita de Gregorio recalls, a climate of consciousness is emerging that is indirectly favored by the premiere of C’è ancora domani, a fabulous dramatic comedy about the emancipation of women in 1946 – directed and starring by Paola Cortellesi – which is becoming the most watched film in the history of the country (four million Italians have already seen it). “The problem in this country is that this issue is not seen as culturally relevant or important. Every time there is a debate on this issue, Parliament is deserted. It is considered a women’s problem. There is also a very misogynistic culture in law enforcement that takes arguments in relationships for granted. And it’s a culture that women are adopting too. The problem is not that there are harsher penalties. This is a battle fought with education,” says De Gregorio.
The education problem also affects the economy in a country where 43% of women do not have a checking account in their name. The problem comes from far away. The slogan that now also encompasses the protests against Giulia’s death. During the Berlusconi era, a group of women took over the seats under the motto “Out of the silence”. A movement that then started with people like Assunta Sarlo, journalist and feminist activist. “I think there was an awareness like never before. We saw it in the squares, at the demonstrations. This time it’s not just women’s demonstrations. There are young men who reject this. We also saw it from the media’s perspective: big voices finally took the floor to criticize it and say it was a men’s problem,” he emphasizes. “But the shock, the outrage is of no use if it doesn’t become political. And then we’ll see if that helped. Educating affectivity in school does not have to be a slogan, but a profound reform. We will see if this changes as the culture of respect takes hold. Because this patriarchal culture can still be seen among young people from good families like Giulia’s murderers.”
The Meloni Executive passed legislation this week to promote this educational change. It is a first step, but insufficient, all experts agree. The opposition has proposed going further and adopting a rule introducing emotional education in schools. Parties like Matteo Salvini’s League are not ready to accept this regulation because they are part of what they call gender ideology. In any case, the leader of the opposition and the executive have agreed for the first time to meet and talk to try to build a common front in this fight. And that is already a revolution in Italy.
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