A 45-year-long red thread. It is that of memory, a fundamental weapon to continue the fight against violence against women. The conference, promoted by the University of Verona in collaboration with the Italian Society of Historians, is based on this important concept, entitled
'To never be alone again'
which also includes the re-enactment of the rape trial in Verona which in 1976 saw the mobilization of women in support of the young victim, with the request that, for the first time in Italian history, the trial be open doors.
It was a central moment in the history of legislation on violence against women which, at the time, was still centered on the Rocco code which framed rape not as a crime against the person but against morality. The mobilization was aimed not only at supporting the victim but also at preventing the process, as unfortunately sometimes still happens today, from turning into a second violence for her.
"This would probably have happened - underlines in an article in the 'Manifesto' Maria Nadia Filippini, promoter of the conference - if we had not been one year after the Circeo crime, in a phase of growth and great manifestations of the feminist movement, if the victim, although very young, she had not been courageous and determined and if the Veronese feminist movement had not decided to do a great battle over this and with her ". A battle fought inside the courtroom by Tina Lagostena Bassi and Maria Magnani Noya, as lawyers for the civil party, and outside the courtroom by the demonstrations of feminist groups and associations with hundreds of people taking to the streets.
To keep alive the memory of those days and to re-tie the thread of an unfortunately very topical battle as evidenced by the continuous episodes of violence and femicide that are full of the news pages at the conference there will be witnesses of the time but also young university students. "It is an event built by stretching our gaze from the past to the present", underlines Filippini, former professor of women's history at the Ca 'Foscari University of Venice and founding member of the society of historians. The program sees, alongside his report, the interventions of the historian Paola Stelliferi (Roma3 University), of the former senator Tiziana Valpiana and of the lawyers Vincenzo Todesco and Cinzia Mazzi, coordinated by Simona Feci of the University of Palermo.
To underline the continuity of the commitment of Veronese women in the fight against sexual violence and to illustrate the major initiatives and the most important services in the city, will be the Councilor for Equal Opportunities Francesca Briani (head of the municipal anti-violence service PETRA - Pratiche Esissioni Theories Antiviolence Relations), Marisa Mazzi, of Isolina and…, Association for the prevention of femicide, Giulia Siviero of “Non una di less”.
Senator Valeria Valente, President of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into Femicide, will conclude the work.
The appointment will be accompanied by the reading of documents, recited by Sara Bigardi and Laura Pece, and feminist songs with Grazia De Marchi and Deborah Kooperman on guitar.
"Forty-five years later - underlines Filippini - I am convinced that knowledge of the history of women's battles is fundamental, it is one of the ways in which we fight, otherwise we go back: we cannot believe that it is all acquired or arrived from heaven. fight against violence must be based on the education of young people, not only on reporting or helping women who have been raped and mistreated (as important as this is). We must try to change gender stereotypes and the male culture that lies behind them . This is why a great "educational mobilization" is needed, involving all training institutions, all school levels. It is necessary to start with boys and girls to change a culture that is still deeply rooted and unfortunately also widespread in the mass media ".