Violence against Women again: when it happens next door...

Recent news about a long series of violences against women in Italy have biased our attention during these days. Yet these facts do not happen somewhere, far away, but often they happen very close to our backyard.

It's the case of what happened last sunday in Blosena (province of Viterbo) just few km from here where a 39 years old man, unemployed, has jabbed at his 34 years old common-law wife from Chile, has threatened her with a hammer and has raped her. This fact is likely to be the last one after a long series of continuing violences. The man has been arrested in the sunday afternoon.

I'vo got to say that it is very difficult for me to add any comment to these news also because I'm quite tired to comment them. I want to see some sign of change after so many bal bla and above all, considering that great and small politics in Italy always fill its stomach with bla bla, I would like to see an entire community hugging close to the victims of these terrible crimes.

In particular, I would like to see these communities unite not to leave alone and behind any of its member to prevent these crimes from occuring: often these crimes happen because these criminals exploit isolation, fear and loneliness of their victims.

For this reason I publish the following press release of the Association Erinna from Viterbo




"Sensational rapes and violences which for mass media is as fragrant bread to be thrown to people hungry of curiosity for crime and gossip news, a fregrant bread grabbed by politicians of this people to appear justice defenders of something not well defined...

Women have not prnounced words, women are angry, women want men be silent because women have never really spoken. Women are tired to see their bodies, already painly infringed and exploited, used for political skirmish having different aims and scopes. Exploit the problem of security to militarize Italy, implement an instrumental aggression to judges' authority...

Violence against women is not an issue of secutiry; violence against women is an issue of relations between genders, a cultural issue belonging to all cultures, all nationalities, all ethnic groups.

We are not perceiving protests or words of indignation when, in our province, young girls are raped by a gang of "good boys" who has been at home arrest for few days and thenafter walked quietly in the city's treets. has someone accused these judges?

Judges aplly law and law establish that if a criminal negotiate, he can obtain a punishment reduction; if he has a clean record he can obtain a further reduction, and if the punished is less than three year jail he can avoid the prison exploiting alternative measures. Has someone be scandalized for this? Not really, because rapers are our sons and we prefer to ignore the problem except for immigrants. yet fro women, a raper is only a man.

Our men are on show claiming for the immigrants' chasing away giving to the people a parody of justice but it doesn't drive to indignation when a gang of young fascists beat a gruop of immigrants or burn their shops or their bodies.

The Government, in order to give an image of efficiency, quicly approves a law on stalking and even a local politician support this law. This law has been firmly wanted by women who have insisted for this at the expiring of the former government. The present government exploit this occasion, as oru local politician does, approving this law just for propaganda scopes.

This law was part of a group of law directed to prevent violence and support anti-violence centres managed by women, the methodologies applied in these centres to give women back their dignity as persons. yet this law has been extracted by that group being rather inserted in the "security law framework" and leaving behind the rest, cutting funds to the anti-violence centres.

We warn men to use our bodies and souls about which they do not know anything because they are not in the mental disposition to start a path toward a different consideration of genders' relations.

If men want to really understand what is violence against women they have to stay in the court and attend the trials on the violence women suffer everyday.

These trials often leave you puzzled as in a recent example happened in viterbo. She always suffer violence everyday; she accuse him; he is at home arrest far from the marital home. She ask for the legal separation asking also for the marital house. she is old, unemployed, but she has worked for her family lifelong, she's got no money, but the judge decides that the marital house will be nto assigned to anyone becasue there are no sons/daughter.

The result of all this is that, at the end of the home arrest, he returned at home and, waiting for further separation sentences, she is forced to stay at home with him. Is it horrible or not?

Remeber that for more than 90% of cases, rapers and killers have home keys...

Associazione Erinna"