LUCA BRUNO/AP
A woman takes part in a protest to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 25. Thousands of people are expected to take to the streets of Rome and other major Italian cities in what organizers call an ongoing “revolution” in Italy’s strategy against violence against women, days after Giulia’s horrific murder, the student, allegedly through her green ex-boyfriend with envy, has sparked a protest against the country’s “patriarchal” culture.
ROME >> Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Italy’s major cities on Saturday to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, just as an Italian man suspected of murdering his ex-girlfriend was extradited from Gerguyy.
The killing of 22-year-old student Giulia Ceschettin by her ex-boyfriend has sparked outrage across Italy, where, on average, a woman is murdered every three days.
Suspect Filippo Turetta, 21, landed at Venice airport mid-morning Saturday. He was immediately transferred to a prison in the northern city of Verona to answer questions as part of the investigation into Cecchettin’s death, Italian media reported.
Cecchettin had disappeared after meeting Turetta for a hamburger at a shopping mall near Venice, just days before graduating with a degree in biomedical engineering. The case has been brought before Italy.
His body was discovered on Nov. 18, covered in black plastic bags, in a ditch near a lake at the foot of the Alps. Turetta was arrested the next day in Germany.
Cecchettin’s killing has sparked an unprecedented wave of grief and anger in Italy, where many say patriarchal attitudes are still entrenched.
Data from the Italian Interior Ministry shows that 106 have been killed this year in Italy, 55 of them through their spouse or ex-spouse.
Italian state television RAI reported that since Cecchettin’s body was found, calls to a national helpline for women who fear for their protection at the hands of men have increased from 200 to 400 a day, joined by parents of young women.
“Rome invaded. . . we are 500,000,” said activists from Non Una Di Meno (Not One Less), the feminist anti-violence group that organized the demonstration in the capital.
The many demonstrations that took place in Italy were a reminder of Cecchettin and his shocking story.
“Male violence is all that has touched me and all of us at any age,” said Aurora Arleo, a 24-year-old student who came to the protest from Ladispoli, a city near Rome. of Giulia, because her story has impacted us and I hope she replaces anything. “
Monica Gilardi, 46, noted that her generation was probably “the one that suffered in silence more than others,” despite years of struggle and women’s emancipation.
“Now that I’ve achieved another awareness, I hope I can share it with my sisters,” she said.
Thousands of men of all ages also responded to the call to join Saturday’s projects against gender-based violence.
“I think it was vital to be here today,” said Leonardo Sanna, 19, who took part in the Rome protest with friends. “It’s not the first time, but I think Giulia’s death has replaced some of the belief about this factor among young people. And I hope it won’t be short-lived.
Earlier this week, the Italian Parliament approved new measures to combat violence against women, unanimously in both chambers.
Among the measures presented is a crusade to combat sexism, machismo and physical and mental violence against women.
“A human society that aspires to be civilized accepts or tolerates this series of attacks on women and murders,” Italian President Sergio Mattarella said Saturday. “We can’t counter this simply with intermittent outrage. “
In his message to mark the fight against gender-based violence, Pope Francis said that it is a scourge that must be eliminated from society and called for action in education.
“Violence against women is a poisonous weed that devastates our society and will have to be uprooted,” the Pope wrote on Saturday in a message on X, the former Twitter.
“These roots grow in the soil of prejudice and injustice; We will have to respond to this with an educational action that puts the person, with his or her dignity, at the center,” he added.
Violence against women and women remains one of the most widespread human rights violations worldwide. According to the most recent UN data, worldwide, more than 700 million women – at most one in three – have experienced physical and sexual violence through an intimate partner, sexual violence against another partner, or both, at least once in their lives.
Thousands of people also rallied in Paris on Saturday to call for more government measures to prevent gender-based violence. Protesters marched with a giant banner that read “Women Are Angry, Prevent Violence: Movements and Resources, Now. “
France has taken steps in recent years to increase the consequences of rape and sexual misconduct. But while President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to tackle fatal domestic violence and other forms of violence against women, activists say France still has a long way to go.
Associated Press report Sylvie Corbet contributed to this report from Paris.
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