Feature: Awareness campaign in schools "crucial" to eliminate violence against women: Italian activists

Women's groups and activists fighting gender violence in Italy on Wednesday pushed for educational campaigns on gender equality to be increased in all schools.

"Italy does not fall short of good laws on gender violence, even though some of them remain to be applied," the Female Gender Association here said in a statement.

"This violence stems from unequal relationships between men and women, and teaching gender equality in schools is crucial to tackling such discrimination," it added.

The appeal was echoed by other women's groups, and coincided with the UN international day for the elimination of violence against women that was being celebrated Wednesday worldwide.

Several events were launched across Italy on Wednesday, and many of them focused on increasing awareness amongst younger generations and students.

Gender-based violence remains at high levels here, despite recent laws that were approved to target perpetrators with harsher penalties and offer women a wider support network.

The Italian cabinet also launched an extraordinary plan against sexual and gender violence in July 2015, with a budget of 30 million euros (31.8 million U.S. dollars) allocated for awareness and training projects in two years.

Nonetheless, 152 women were killed in so-called "femicide" cases in 2014, the interior ministry said.

This figure marked an 8.0-percent decrease compared to the 165 women killed in 2013, but a factor worrying both authorities and activists was that a large majority of such cases were perpetrated by husbands, partners, or other male relatives.

Over 3,600 cases of sexual violence were also registered between March 2014 and March 2015, with a 21.34 percent decrease compared to the same previous period, the interior ministry added.

The National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) stated in June this year that some 6.7 million women in Italy had been victims of physical or sexual violence in their life, out of a female population of some 30.6 million.

On Wednesday, around 1,000 Italian municipalities marked the international day with memorial events for the victims of domestic violence, while local initiatives involving schools took place in Rome, Milan, Brescia, Genoa, Naples, and dozens of other cities.

President Sergio Mattarella also spoke out on this, saying that "the school must be on the frontline in the fight against violence on women."

The Female Gender Association, like many women groups, was directly involved in the educational initiatives marking the day.

"We are running a project together with Rome's provincial authorities in Giordano Bruno high school this year, which involved some 300 boys and girls," president Cotrina Madaghiele told Xinhua.

"We discussed gender stereotypes and gender crimes with them in several meetings, also considering different perspectives of the issue with the help of a psychologist and a lawyer," she explained.

"Plus, we examined both female victim's and male offender's profiles."

Pupils reacted awkwardly at first, but then took pleasure in the initiative and gave their own contribution, Madaghiele added.

However, the group appealed for such projects to be integrated in the normal school year to achieve more lasting results, and facilitate a positive change that would take hold in society.

"We run training courses on gender violence for various people such as social workers, volunteers, teachers, psychologists, and lawyers," the activist said.

"We can confirm there is a great awareness. This is an ideal time to implement a change."

Psychologist Marina Asprella Libonati, who is also a teacher in the same high school where the Female Gender Association's project took place, agreed.

"It is a good time to take action, for there is a wider sensibility not only within human sciences secondary schools like ours, but among teachers in general," she told Xinhua.

She believed the contribution of women's groups and external professional figures was crucial to increase pupils' awareness.

"A main task of the school is to put students in contact with the outside, which goes far beyond what they can learn from teachers," Asprella Libonati said.

"This is why experts and volunteers can make the difference."

As a psychologist, Asprella Libonati stressed that working with teenage pupils was key to eradicating violence against women from the roots of society.

"Working with adolescents allows them to elaborate such issues as they are developing their own personality as individuals," she explained.

"This process takes time, but that is how a change can be really implemented in the male-female relationship." Endit