Italy Femicide Numbers Demand Action- How to Stop Femicide
In just 2 days, 5 women were murdered in Italy by their so-called partners or “lovers”. That amounts to one femicide every 12 hours as reported here in a Rome newspaper, Il Messaggero. Many readers ask how to end femicide. The national annual average in Italy is one femicide every two days.
During the week, these shocking deaths hardly got a mention in the Italian press. This was disgraceful in that there was far more attention given to the coronavirus (a mild influenza-like illness with a very low mortality rate, 3%-4%) and how an Italian student was flown back home from China in a military aircraft.
We were submerged with headlines about a virus which, so far, has not cost the life of one person in the country.
Yet, 5 women were murdered by their jealous and possessive partners who just could not accept the fact that they were about to be deprived of a person who (probably) loved them at some point in the past.
A poster campaign in Milan showed battered faces of women politicians just to bring it home.
2019 was a very bad year for women’s rights in Italy as I have explained in this article here.
A woman phoned a radio station and asked why the whole nation was inert and inept in reacting to these crimes.
Femicide worldwide deserves more attention.
The figures speak louder than words. Family murders are about 3.5% of the total. Yes, a few men are killed or commit suicide but the figure of 90% of women who are murdered by men is shocking. Asia has the worst record of all.
If a woman lives in Latin America (Honduras or El Salvador), the chances of her being murdered in domestic violence are 40 times greater than in Europe.
The femicide rates in Europe are much lower but Italy again is in the top three, along with Germany and the UK.
What must change in order to stop this happening again and again? Is there anything we can do?
- Education of boys and girls about gender-based violence and how it can be abolished.
- Talking about the value of decent male role models is vital for boys.
- Talking about the patriarchy and toxic masculinity
- Teaching and talking about impulse control. Violence is for losers.
- Tenderness, sensitivity, and empathy are often the marks of a great man
- How to cope with emotions will make men much stronger.
The desire for success, perfect body, brilliant career, and flashy possessions pale into insignificance when men learn how to cope with fear, anger, envy, without thinking that violence or suicide is the answer.
Why gender equality leads to a happier and more peaceful society where everyone can thrive.
Deal with topics such as rape myths, consent, and what to do if they witness sexual violence against women.
The fact that the President of the United States, Donald Trump can dismiss all this as “ locker-room talk” is an indicator that we have a long way to go. Sexual violence on the part of the male patriarchy is endemic.
In the USA, 1 in 5 women experiences rape at some point in their lives.
Educating boys and girls to cope with modern-day pressures and to rid them of gender-based prejudice is the first great step on how to stop femicide.
Finally, there is some good news from Italy in that revenge porn crimes will now be punished with sentences of up to six years of imprisonment.
The Italian government has passed a Code Red Law which will put women on the fast track for help, surveillance, and assistance when reporting domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
“About sixty-six thousand women are killed by men annually, worldwide, in the specific circumstances they began to call “femicide.” Most of them are killed by lovers, husbands, former partners, seeking the most extreme form of containment, the ultimate form of erasure, silencing, disappearance. Such deaths often come after years or decades of being silenced and erased in the home, in daily life, by threat and violence. Some women get erased a little at a time, some all at once.” ― Rebecca Solnit, Men Explain Things to Me