Tuesday 21 November 2023. The young one Giulia Cecchettin, joins the list of women killed since the beginning of 2023; a deplorable list: in which in addition to the 105 victims, the fatal blows were inflicted on 105 families, on 105 communities… in short on a society!
“When we talk about feminicide,” he states Elena Laguardia, Equal Opportunities Manager Uilm Basilicata – we are talking about rampant violence that overwhelms entire families and brings together more and more women, united by the same tragic fate. These are mothers, sisters, daughters, girlfriends, wives, young and old women. These are stories, broken lives, broken dreams.
Yet what makes it most difficult for me to write today is that feeling of helplessness of those who know, because I know it, but we all know it, that Giulia is not and will not be the last! And then, there are some questions that scream: “Why?”
Because, a man who should protect and support a woman, share dreams and projects with a woman, rejoice in a woman’s successes, preserve and cherish with tenderness and respect even the memory of a woman with whom it didn’t work out, manages to become like this brutal, so sentimentally illiterate, to the point of killing!
On the subject of femicide, and more generally of violence against women – states Laguardia – the responsibility is entirely social, there is no point in attacking, as often happens – thanks to the media and social networks -, on families who should or should have been more present. The truth is different, and above all uncomfortable. It must be said that we live in an era of great acceleration, of great frenzy, where society as a whole – in its different sides of the same coin: economic, working – has played a crucial role in impoverishing us of values, civic sense, solidarity, sense of belonging to a community.
We are at the mercy of the feeling of not having time, of the feeling that others have more than us, and it is in the frantic search to reach and surpass the other, and in the fear of losing what we have, that we have lost sight of the importance of living relationships, sentimental as well as interpersonal ones, in the name of transparency, respect, reciprocity, equality.
We have stopped listening to each other, looking each other in the eye, on the street, in the workplace, and this has made us people who live individually in contexts that should be collective. If this were not the case, perhaps some feminicides could have been avoided… One could have noticed a friend, a sister, a colleague, a neighbor, with pain, fear, in short, a burden on their shoulders!
And from the perspective of a responsibility that should be felt and shared by all, the social partners have an important, almost strategic role in the daily relationship of mediation and communication between people – even before workers – employers and institutions.
This year therefore, given the now emergency scope, FIM, FIOM and UILM together with Federmeccanica and Assistal have worked on a project that promotes everyone’s awareness of the topic of Violence against women in the workplace.
The project “We GENERATE Culture”has the objective of starting a path of cultural evolution, passing through dissemination and information as well as articles dedicated to the fight against gender violence, introduced in the renewal of the 2021 CCNL, also some slides that help in understanding how sometimes the importance of phrases said or attitudes towards women hide a form of violence.
It is an important project, where the collaboration created between companies and social partners, with the various initiatives implemented in the various workplaces, strongly relaunches the desire to team up in the containment, contrast – and hopefully over time – elimination of the phenomenon .
In conclusion, with just over a month to go until the end of 2023, I would like to, as the PO Manager for the UILM of Basilicata, say that what is coming to an end was for our Region, and more specifically for the city of Potenza, a year marked by an unpleasant occasion but which seems to have rekindled the sense of belonging to a large community.
30 years ago, on September 12th, in Potenza, Elisa disappeared, a very young student, who revealed herself, after 16 years, perhaps among the first victims of femicide of our time. 30 years have passed amidst many shadows and very few lights, now known to all, which in sharing the pain, injustice and cowardice of that gesture made 30 years ago, but which is the same gesture, which to date has already been accomplished 105 times in our country, teaches us that only through the acquisition of a civic and social conscience that can be transmitted to others can we try to combat this phenomenon which no longer has anything to do with a civil society such as ours should return to be”.
Cover photo: Giulia Cecchettin
