Furious Italians are taking to the streets to show solidarity and demand justice after two separate cases of gang rape against teenage girls came to light in July.
People take part in a demonsstration in the center of Palermo, Italy, on August 26, 2023 against violence against women. (Photo by Francesco Militello Mirto/NurPhoto)
In one case, a 19-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped by seven men aged between 18 and 22 in Palermo, Sicily, in July.
People take part in a demonsstration in the center of Palermo, Italy, on August 26, 2023 against violence against women. (Photo by Francesco Militello Mirto/NurPhoto)
The men had met the woman at a club, got her drunk and then carried her, barely walking, to an abandoned construction site, where they filmed themselves gang-raping her.
Security footage show the men carrying the woman, who could barely walk, to an abandoned construction house.
The seven men, including a minor who later turned 18, have since been arrested and an investigation is ongoing.
People take part in a demonsstration in the center of Palermo, Italy, on August 26, 2023 against violence against women. (Photo by Francesco Militello Mirto/NurPhoto)
In a series of WhatsApp conversations leaked by local newspapers, one of the men later said that the incident was disgusting but said “flesh is flesh”, causing an uproar on social media with people showing their support for the woman with the hashtag #IoNonSonoCarne (#IAmNotFlesh).
People take part in a demonsstration in the center of Palermo, Italy, on August 26, 2023 against violence against women. (Photo by Francesco Militello Mirto/NurPhoto)
In the other case, two girl cousins, aged 10 and 12, were allegedly repeatedly raped by a group of six teen boys, aged between11 and 19, over several months.
Don Maurizio Patriciello, parish priest of the “Parco Verde” with politicians and citizens attend the march in solidarity for the two girls victims of sexual violence on August 29, 2023 in Naples, Italy.(Photo by Ivan Romano/Getty Images)
The girls have since been moved to a foster home, and an investigation is ongoing.
People take part in the solidarity demonstration for the victims of sexual violence on August 29, 2023 in Caivano, Italy. (Photo by Ivan Romano/Getty Images)
The incident took place in Parco Verde, Caivano, a working class city in Naples.
People take part in the solidarity demonstration for the victims of sexual violence on August 29, 2023 in Caivano, Italy. Two children of suspected Camorra members, the Italian secret society of criminals, are said to be part of the group that gang raped two 13-year-old girls in the ‘Parco Verde’ area of Naples in July 2023 – a social housing complex known for being a prominent drug dealing centre in Italy. (Photo by Ivan Romano/Getty Images)
Italy’s far-right, first woman prime minister Giorgia Meloni has paid a visit to Caviano on Thursday Aug. 31, when she called the crime “barbaric”.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks to journalists during her visit to the Parco Verde on August 31, 2023 in Caivano, Italy. (Photo by Ivan Romano/Getty Images)
However, she did not speak about the incident from a women’s rights perspective, saying only that authorities would clean up the town from “illegality and drugs”.
Police in Parco Verde during the solidarity demonstration for the victims of sexual violence on August 29, 2023 in Caivano, Italy. (Photo by Ivan Romano/Getty Images)
She also did not address comments made by her partner, Andrea Giambruno, a TV presenter, that blamed the 19-year-old woman victim in the Palermo case.
Andrea Giambruno, partner of Giorgia Meloni during the swearing in of the Meloni government at the Quirinale Palace, on October 22, 2022 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Fabrizio Corradetti/LiveMedia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“If you go dancing, you have every right to get drunk,” Giambruno said, according to Reuters. “But if you avoid getting drunk and losing your senses, you might also avoid running into certain problems and being found by the wolf”.
Women show house keys during the National demonstration against violence against women on November 26, 2022 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Simona Granati – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
He has insisted that his words were taken out of context.
A woman takes part in a protest with a smoke bomb during the International Women’s Day March organised by the Italian movement ‘Non una di meno’ on March 8, 2023 in Pisa, Italy. (Photo by Laura Lezza/Getty Images)
Rights groups say that victims of gender violence in Italy are often discouraged from coming forward, because the language used around rape cases is often demeaning to the victims and trivialises their experiences.
Thousands of women participate in the National demonstration against male violence against women and gender organized by the transfeminist movement Non Una di Meno, on November 26, 2022 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Simona Granati – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
For example, a court acquitted a man who was accused of sexual violence because he was “passionate” and called another victim “uninhibited,” according to the New York Times.
Thousands of people participate in the demonstration On International Day For The Elimination Of Violence Against Women organized by the feminist movement “Non una di Meno” on November 26, 2022 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Stefano Montesi – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
In July, a judge in Italy dismissed a young woman’s sexual assault case on the grounds that the duration she was groped was “too short”, leading people to share viral videos on social media showing how unbearably long it can be to experience sexual harassment for even 10 seconds.
