“Murder is not a crime of passion. It is a crime of power,” Elena Chekettin wrote after her sister was murdered in November 2023.
Italian student Giulia Cecchettin, 22, was allegedly murdered by her controlling ex-boyfriend, Filippo Turreta, a student at the University of Padua. Prosecutors allege that Turreta could not bear her departure and killed his girlfriend, Julia, after taking her out for her final shopping trip. Her body was found at the bottom of a ditch with over 20 stab wounds. According to the latest reports from Italy, Turetta fled to Germany, where he was arrested and is currently awaiting trial in Italy.
Cecchettin’s case was widely reported not only in Italy but around the world. But it’s not unique. Femicide (the killing of women because of their gender) is alarmingly common in Italy. At least 109 women were murdered in Italy in 2023. More than half were murdered by a partner or ex-partner.
International comparisons of femicide rates can be difficult, but those who track such numbers suggest that Italy’s femicide problem runs deep. The Italian encyclopedia Treccani Institute, a cultural organization, has even chosen “femicide” as the word of the year for 2023.
In an attempt to address the high rate of femicide, a new law entitled “Provisions to Combat Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence” came into force in Italy on December 12, 2023. Although the law strengthens protections for women by expanding the definition of torts related to domestic violence and increasing penalties for violators, the law has limitations.
Eugenia Maria Roccella, one of the cabinet members who proposed the law, said that Giulia Cecchettin and “other women who never suspected that violence lurked in the hearts of men who claimed to love them” He emphasized how the law was unable to protect the people.
Indeed, Elena Cecchettin pointed to cultural factors that contributed to the murder of her sister and other women in Italy. It was a patriarchal society where male violence and domination had long been tolerated. “Monsters are the healthy sons of patriarchy and rape culture,” she says.
roman rule
Femicide is a cultural phenomenon with deep roots dating back thousands of years.
While many pre-modern societies were patriarchal and violent, Italy is unique in many ways. The legacies of the Roman Empire, Italian fascism, and Roman Catholicism remain large. I would argue that each has contributed to modern Italy, where male violence has become the norm.
Roman history is inseparable from misogyny and rape. It exists in the origin stories of city-states. When Romulus realized that there were no women in his fledgling city, he captured unmarried girls and women from the nearby Sabine tribe and kept them as concubines for Rome. By the time the Sabines sought revenge, many of the tribe’s daughters and sisters had given birth to or had given birth to Romans. According to this story, women rushed to the battlefield as living shields to keep peace between their fathers and their Roman captors.
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Women in Rome were treated as second-class citizens. During gladiator fights, women were allowed to sit only in the worst seats next to the slaves. Female disobedience resulted in severe corporal punishment, with Roman women being kicked to death, drowned, or thrown out of windows.
High social status did not protect women. Emperor Nero’s first wife and his mother were murdered on his orders. Nero’s second wife was kicked to death while pregnant. Even the Vestal Virgin, the sacred priestess of Rome, was buried alive if she broke her vow of chastity or extinguished the eternal flame.
Prostitutes and actresses were trafficked, raped, and killed, while noble women were subject to the “right to kiss.” This law allowed male relatives to “test” women to ensure they were not drinking wine. Violating the “right to kiss” and prohibition of alcohol policy was punishable by death.
Misogyny was so endemic that Roman law focused more on protecting women’s chastity than on punishing the perpetrator in cases of rape. Roman centurion Lucius Verginius murdered his daughter to protect her virginity from her abuser Appius Claudius.
This culture of misogyny has been celebrated through art, education, and cinematography. For example, works by Giambolognia, Rubens, Poussin, and Picasso all depict the Rape of the Sabine, and their works are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Accademia Gallery in Florence.
The legacy of Roman patriarchy also pervades pop culture. From Quo Vadis to Ben-Hur to Gladiator, movies have glorified violent times when strong men were worshiped.
On the other hand, many modern people are obsessed with the Roman Empire, as has recently been claimed.
The same goes for the cultural industry. Cinecittà Film Studio’s gladiator series “The Dying” became a worldwide hit.
For certain modern men, Rome signifies an escape from egalitarian norms, allowing them to regain the loss of male power.
fascist touch
Italian society also continues to be influenced by fascism, an ideology steeped in male violence.
Fascism, brought to Italy by Benito Mussolini in the 1930s, considered childbearing to be a woman’s primary duty. Women were defined in terms of complete subordination to men and in terms of their role as family and mother.
Almost 100 years later, the legacy of fascism lives on in Italy. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has admired the Mussolini of her youth, and her own right-wing party, Fratelli d’Italia, is descended from the Italian Socialist Movement party founded by former fascists.
And the fascist leader remains in the national consciousness, as the new TV show “M: Son of the Century” about the rise of Mussolini shows. So is the pernicious “masculinism” that has come to be associated with fascism and is finding new supporters among incels as a rationale for anti-women violence.
catholic grip
I believe that Catholicism also helped normalize patriarchy and misogyny in Italy.
Catholicism is at the core of the so-called “Madonna-whore complex,” in which women are seen as either chaste and virtuous or promiscuous and immoral. Theorists have long studied how this dichotomy is steeped in misogyny. This dichotomous stereotype has been used to justify perpetrators’ violence against women.
Take the example of Roman Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi. She was raped in 1611 at the age of 17 by her master painter, Agostino Tassi. She testified in court, was physically tortured during her trial, and was treated as a promiscuous seductress.
Tassi was protected and released by the Pope. Despite being a great artist, Gentileschi was disgraced and erased from public memory for centuries.
Catholic influence also contributes to customs and legal systems that can make women more vulnerable. Italy’s abortion law allows Catholic doctors to “conscientiously object” to performing abortions, forcing women to travel within the country or abroad.
Meanwhile, Catholic doctrine on contraception and abortion forces women to give birth, even if they become pregnant through rape or are facing a high-risk pregnancy.
Research also suggests that the Catholic Church’s teachings on divorce may cut off escape routes for women caught in violent relationships.
deadly passion
Meanwhile, Italy’s patriarchal traditions pervade law and society in other ways.
Extreme leniency for those involved in the murder of a “spouse, daughter, or sister involved in illicit sexual activity” was written into the country’s criminal code until 1981. And even today, public figures refer to “crimes of passion” and “honor killings.” It referred to the murder of a woman involved in an “illicit” sexual relationship.
Pesticides do not occur in a vacuum. They are the result of a society that justifies violence against women. I believe that changes in the law to better protect women in Italy are welcome, but looking at the country’s culture, both past and present, may also be a necessary step. Until then, Italy’s daughters will not be safe and will never be completely free.