Violence against women has always been a much discussed topic. Today it is common to hear stories on the news regarding events of abuse by boyfriends, husbands or partners. These abuses are not exclusively physical but can also concern the psychological aspect, such as threats and insults. People often think that this phenomenon is only associated with extreme crimes such as rape or murder but it is not the only form of violence against women.
There is always a beginning which is usually described by women as “normal”, in fact violence manifests itself gradually. The initial intent is to directly attack the self-esteem of the victim, who is ignored, debased, ridiculed. Women, in this phase, begin to feel the tension and try to prevent violence by being compliant, thus reinforcing, however, man’s belief that he has the right to act violently. These behaviours, initially sporadic, become more and more frequent until they reach the “explosion or aggression” phase in which men give the impression of losing control of themselves and proceed to act out physical violence.
This phenomenon can be mostly characterized by continuous episodes of domestic violence: women unable to go out with friends because their husbands force them to stay at home, girls who are scolded for dressing as they like, soliciting in nightclubs.
Many women even convince themselves that mistreatment is simply part of their life as a couple. This is the idea that causes the lack of reporting by the victims who, considering these situations normal, do not feel the need to ask the authorities for help.
According to some reports, in Italy the number of femicide increased to 106 murders during 2023. 31.5% of 16-70 year old women have suffered some form of physical or sexual violence in their lives: 20.2% have suffered physical violence, 21% sexual violence, 5.4% the most serious forms of sexual violence, such as rape and attempted rape.
One of the most recent cases which is causing a stir is the one involving Giulia Cecchettin, a 22 year old girl from Veneto, who was killed by her ex boyfriend, Filippo Turetta. He had always shown signs of jealousy towards Giulia, who decided to break up with him. He asked her to meet just another time, and there he murdered her. Some expert psychiatrists are focusing on the murderer, so as to affirm or deny the thesis regarding Turetta’s behavioural disorder, because in a lot of similar cases, some studies demonstrated the link between the decision of murdering someone and mental illnesses. Sometimes if it is demonstrated that the killer is mentally unhealthy, there may be a penalty discount. This aspect of the mind had been previously analyzed by the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Already in the twentieth century he stated that our mind is divided into three parts: conscious, unconscious, and pre-consciuous. These instincts that push people to commit terrible crimes exist within our unconscious. The difference is that for mentally healthy people, these remain within the unconscious, while in mentally ill people, these reach the conscious and push them to commit terrible actions.
In light of what has been said, it is therefore vitally important to have sufficient knowledge of the phenomenon, raising awareness among all of the young segment of the population, acting actively and bringing attention also to the knowledge of Article 3 of the Constitution and the objectives of the 2030 Agenda, which stated gender equality as one of their objectives. Schools play a role of great impact, which through the organization of conferences, discussions with experts, viewing of related films, aim to arouse the interest of children to the topic and contribute to forming citizens who are more aware of their rights, so that the problem of violence against women is gradually overcome, until it disappears completely. Our school proves to be very active, in fact it organized an educational trip aimed at watching the film by the actress and director Paola Cortellesi, “C’è ancora domani”, purpose of which is to raise awareness regarding violence against women, by describing the harsh conditions they had to live in the 1940s.
A cura di: Crotti Federica, D’Auria Alfonso, De Gennaro Giovanni, De Sanctis Antonio, Di Capua Luigi, Miloro Manuel, Narciso Giovanna, Savarese Lara, Serrapica Alessandro, Serrapica Salvatore, Somma Laura, Staiano Anna