Femicide Increases in Italy During Lockdown
“Violence against women comprises a wide range of acts – from verbal harassment and other forms of emotional abuse, to daily physical or sexual abuse. At the far end of the spectrum is femicide: the murder of a woman” (from World Health Organization).
The word femicide, understood as perpetuated violence against a woman by a man, was first spread by sociologist, activist and criminologist Diane Russell in 1992 in her famous book “Femicide: The Politics of a woman killing”.
2020 will be remembered as the year of the pandemic due to Covid-19 and the year in which the population was forced to remain closed within the four walls of their houses, recording another terrible fact: the increase in femicides.
Many women, forced to remain segregated in their home during the lockdown, were killed or suffered physical and psychological abuse.
To get a better idea, here are some statistics.
During the first six months of 2020, murderers of women accounted for 45% of the total of all murders, reaching as much as 50% in spring 2020.
One woman every three days was killed inside the house in the first ten months of 2020, for a total of 91 femicides in Italy, this number is scary and should make you think.
Women and children are the weakest victims and their confinement at home, without being able to go out and ask for help, was one of the main causes that led to the increase in these terrible killings.
Most of the victims were killed within the family or by a partner or ex-partner, 21 out of 26 women killed, lived with their own executioner.
Home, the place considered to be the safest, has become a trap with no escape route for many women, who often, due to family pressures, have preferred or have been forced not to file a complaint.
Violence against women is rooted in time and in patriarchal culture all over the world and killing a woman “only” because she is a woman is a mindset difficult to unhinge.
Why does man kill or violate a woman?
Sociological research has shown that the cause is to be found in the fear for men,of losing their power, the fear that women become too autonomous, independent and they can no longer control them. Acts of violence come from men from all social classes, with no particular difference between educational levels and family backgrounds.
Most of the men claim that they killed for LOVE , but if you love someone, you must know how to give up and accept the independence and happiness of the other person.
Women are not an object to be possessed and I hope that sooner or later, all this will change.“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them, Women are afraid that men will kill them” (Margaret Atwood).
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