Voices: Women in Italy don’t feel safe – and now they are showing their anger

As women are taking to the streets across Europe on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, a new chant is rising up from the Italian demonstrations: “burn everything down”.

This is the message launched by the sister of Giulia Cecchettin, the 22-year-old biomedical engineering student who was found dead on 18 November.

Giulia went missing after having dinner with her ex-boyfriend at a local McDonald’s in the Venice province. After a week of frantic searches, her body was discovered near a lake.

Giulia’s ex-boyfriend was arrested in Germany. A court has approved his extradition to Italy, arriving on Saturday, where he will be taken into custody on arrival and questioned by an investigating judge.

It was Giulia’s sister Elena Cecchettin who, after learning about her death, ignited the debate with an appeal on the Italian TV show Dritto e Rovescio: “For Giulia, don’t make a minute of silence. For Giulia, burn everything down.”

This phrase inspired by a poem by Peruvian activist Cristina Torres-Cáceres, sparked protests across Italy, including a minute of noise held in several schools including the University of Padua, where Giulia was scheduled to get her degree in biomedical engineering five days.

But what exactly does “burn it all down” mean?

As an Italian woman myself, who used to walk through the same streets students are now protesting in, I sadly know the answer.

Elena called on Italians to bring down “the rape culture built on actions that aim at limiting women’s freedom”, like checking obsessively the partner’s phone, being possessive or even catcalling.

I experienced firsthand what that system looks like. The unwanted attention from male colleagues, the sexist comments, and even the “accidental” boob graze.

Many of my female friends shared with me in the past week how they were harassed on the streets by groups of drunk men, how a stranger touched their legs on a public train when they were just 15, or how jealousy turned into domestic abuse before their eyes.

Although not all these actions can lead to episodes of extreme violence, it does create an environment in which we as women never really feel at ease.

“As female students, we don’t feel safe,” Emma Ruzzon, student-body president and member of Unione degli Universitari of Padua, which is organising the minute of noise for 25 November, told The Independent.

“We know of female friends and classmates who were harassed while coming back home at night on their own, but even during the day, in bars, in the universities’ hallways”.

“There is also a number of women who don’t report [the abuse]. Trust in the law enforcement is close to zero”.

If this sounds too familiar to you, it is because harassment and abuse is not only an Italian problem.

Giulia was the 103rd woman to die in 2023 in Italy, according to the interior minister’s data.

This number is not far from the UK’s, where 109 women have been killed so far in 2023. Trust in the police is also dropping following cases like Sarah Everard or, more recently, Gracie Spinks, who was killed by her stalker after she had reported him to the police.

However, Giulia’s death is (quite literally) making more noise than ever in Italy, because it is bursting a bubble that has been building up for years.

The #MeToo movement that shook the core of the United States movie industry in 2016 never really took off in Italy, and women like myself were often left confused on how to report or describe harassment and abuse.

It was Giulia’s sister’s call to action that struck a chord with me and many other Italians, pushing us to re-ignite the discussion on sexism and harassment – and, more importantly, asking men to be accountable for their actions and those of their friends.

But change must also come from within the institutions.

Giorgia Meloni, who had to deal with a stalker herself before becoming Italy’s prime minister, has already announced that more funds will be directed to the anti-violence plan, sensibility campaigns in schools and the promotion of a helpline for victims of stalking and violence.

Is this enough to “burn down the system”? It won’t be, unless we can guarantee that the push for change will not die with Giulia. Every one of us in Italy, but also in the UK and across the world, has the responsibility to work every day to make sure that come next 25 November, the list of women killed in their country will be considerably shorter.