by Sheila Soprani

Due to a technical problem, the article was originally published stumped of a large part of the text. The full version has now been restored (Editor's note).

Since the 1st of August, the Istanbul Convention, on the prevention of violence against women and domestic abuse, has also been in force in our country. which was also ratified by Italy a year ago. We now also have at our disposal an international instrument, legally binding for states, that addresses the phenomenon of violence, in its many forms, on women and girls as members of the female sex.

The Convention is clear on the strategies to be adopted: they are summarized in the "3 P's": Prevention, Protection, Punishment, to achieve one great goal, to eliminate all forms of violence and abuse in relations between the sexes. With the Istanbul Convention, the state has an opportunity to make everything that already exists work: (efficient social services, adequately supported anti-violence centers, restoration of trust in women's justice, and to fill the gaps that are still there, taking charge of those 3Ps that would help not to leave women, minors, families, volunteers, and workers alone.

The departure must be the restoration of educational values that have been lost with the spread of social myths; everyone must be beautiful and successful, individuals who must never succumb. Little does patriarchal culture have to do with it, when one considers that many steps have been taken in terms of emancipation, it is truly, an absurdity, a paradox to believe that the damage is manifested now more than before, when indeed women were relegated to a marginal role in society.

It is essential, instead, to recover that strength of the family upbringing of our grandparents, capable of conveying the importance of sacrifice, of striving for an achievement; no political 6 so as not to demoralize the learners! Everything must be sweated and achieved with stubbornness and with the knowledge that if it fails, patience, no drama should be made of it! There must be no parents who shoot a teacher, but parents who, without being distracted themselves by social media, walk alongside us to accept, they with us, even the defeats.

Parents who know how to give loving caresses, but who know how to impart the "no's that make us grow," those no's that stifle that narcissistic part of us, which, now more than ever, is emphasized by advertising, social, media, and trap music and which must not totally conquer our self. Healthy narcissism must be limited to self-love, to the preservation of self as an individual, so as to maintain the dignity that unfortunately many women have lost, or never had. The most important role is for women who are mothers and who, in raising children, do not put differences themselves, do not be the ones to exempt males from family duties, including service and care, just because one belongs to the male sex.

These gestures of apparent harmless love implicitly convey a value of superiority of male children who, if they grow up in a fabric devoid of values, become potentially dangerous carriers of violence. Female daughters must be conveyed that never be inert, never give up being a woman, always defend their dignity, never allowing any abuse, even occasional, to come from whomever it may be, for the "mere annoyance of having to be activated." It is through the alliance of the two parental figures, mother and father, that this goal is achieved.

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A consolidating role can be played by schools but, mind you, only consolidating because to delegate this educational duty to others is to deresponsibilize ourselves and thus contravene the natural role proper to the family. Pathways should be identified in schools that consolidate the family teaching of respect for self, others and rules. Providing an educational duty, through compulsory attendance in a competitive sport, would make it possible to concretize this teaching.

In sports, whatever they may be, one learns determination, commitment, sacrifice, one strengthens self-esteem, without trespassing on narcissism, because at the same time, one learns the duty to respect the rules and therefore to respect the opponent, one learns not to give in to the self-centered instinct, knowing how to extend a hand to the opponent, finally, to accept that he wins the competition instead of us. without feeling, for this, inept. By getting people to attend a competitive sport from a boyhood age, we can have balanced people: "mens sana in corpore sano," people who are little on social media but measure themselves against real life.

We can legislate with unanimous acts, but they remain blank regulations if not accompanied by a proper educational system. A necessary step would be to substantiate the Istanbul Convention, in concrete and useful actions through the national anti-violence plan. It is known, there is a lack of funds, and those provided are never enough, but even with funding, inter-ministerial coordination to deal with the case with a multifunctional approach is indispensable. A unified national platform to circulate information among public safety bodies, health and social workers is indispensable, and one should not be held hostage to procedures and timeframes, as the factual reality shows us.

From the procedural point of view, for example, contracting the time of preliminary investigations to 30 days does not help victims because they might mow down arguments of evidence, useful in the trial. Necessary, on the other hand, is to reduce the stasis time, between hearings, after, the indictment, when the victim is faced with pachydermic times that do not go hand in hand with life, nor with precautionary measures, which cannot be eternal, given the constitutional guarantee of the defendant's right to defense, and the presumption of innocence.

On the other hand, letting "the precautionary measure expire" such as the no approach decree or the electronic bracelet, before the end of the trial, exposes the victim to the punitive reactions of her perpetrator for daring to defend herself, and it is not enough to then make the defendant forfeit benefits and apply aggravating factors, when the revenge is consummated, it becomes irreversible for the woman who dies, but also for the one who is saved, who continues to live in the nightmare, sure that she is not protected enough.

Concrete actions do not lie in the blatant exploitation of facts to simplistically place the blame, only on a system; these media conducts are ignobly an act of violence against all victims!

sheila soprani

Avvocato specializzata in legislazione e diritto parlamentare, autrice di dossier per il Servizio Studi della Camera dei Deputati, è laureata in Giurisprudenza presso l'Università di Pisa e l'Università di Cordoba (Spagna). Master in Scienze della legislazione e corsi di perfezionamento in Diritto comunitario, Mediazione civile, Mediazione civile in materia bancaria e finanziaria. Membro del Dipartimento Giustizia e  dell’Osservatorio della Lega Salvini Premier in Toscana.