The Forlì Women’s Forum made up of Cgil Forlì-Cesena, Udi Unione donne in Italia Forlì, Permanent Table of the Associations against violence against women of Forlì, Vocedonna Association, Women Association wrote today Sunday 16 June an “Open Letter to the elected mayor of the city of Forlì, Gian Luca Zattini” whose text we report in full.
A long and complex period has come to an end during which the democratic debate was lively, at times difficult, but we hope that we will all be able to transform it into a wealth of experience for the cultural and political growth of this community.
In the foreword to the national strategy for gender equality 2021-2026 we read: “Gender equality is an extraordinary engine of growth and one of the most relevant and urgent cornerstones of the development and progress agenda of countries: the United Nations has indicated Gender Equality as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, the European Union has promoted a Strategic Engagement on Gender Equality for the three-year period 2016-19 and a new Strategy for the five-year period 2020-2025.”
We decided to write this letter because in this city there is a community that works to help pursue this result. As a group of women’s associations or as representatives of the territory we wish to act for the necessary cultural change and to remove any obstacle to the recognition of the role of women in society, as well as defending the rights of female self-determination, in particular the right to abortion.
We ask that the Mayor, who chairs the Social and Health Conference, always guarantees the application of law 194, i.e. the possibility of voluntary termination of pregnancy in hospital, while respecting conscientious objection, and that to protect this fundamental right is opposed to the entry into the clinics of associations that act as conditions blaming for women, preserving the spaces dedicated to women’s health and autonomous decision-making and working to increase information and prevention activities, providing for this purpose greater support to consultants.
We ask for respect for the equal share of presence of women in the municipal council and in public bodies companies owned by the Municipality. We ask that the “Plan for equality” included in the electoral program be promptly and quickly implemented coalition and to work on the implementation of the “gender budget” together with the evaluation of the impact of public policies on the living conditions of women, increasing budget resources, following up on an action policy that in the past five years has recognized the value of the Women’s Center.
For the next five years we ask to strengthen and make the Women’s Center an increasingly open space available to women and different subjectivities of citizenship. We ask that actions be developed to combat discrimination, gender-based and homo-bi-transphobic violence. We call for the development of services and policies to combat the social fragility of women, especially women migrants, and to make a real socio-cultural change possible in which women become protagonists. To this In this regard, we urge a strong proactive commitment from the Equal Opportunities Commission, hoping for a constant dialogue with local representatives and associations.
