The Fascist Report

According to Forbes [Women], “the domestic violence crisis in Italy is so bad that Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, in 2013, referred to the country’s killing of women at the hands of current or former lovers as femicide”. In 2013, almost as many as 100 women have died in cases of domestic violence, and in 2012 a United Nations’ report labelled domestic abuse in Italy as the “most pervasive form of violence” in the country, affecting over 30 percent of Italian women. The report also reported that the majority of Italian women who were abused, almost 90% did not report the incidents to the police. Despite making the public aware through media and the use of education regarding this crisis which entails the variety of violent situations a woman

Benito Mussolini, who had a very dismissive attitude towards women, quickly established his stance on where the best place a woman should be at, which was back in the home taking care of her child(ren) and all household chores. In the 1920s, he was quoted by a female journalist as saying: “Women are a charming pastime, only if the man has time to pass… but women should never be taken seriously.” Prior to entering the Second World War, many Fascist throughout Italy had agreed that the feminist movement especially in regards to the suffrage movement was considered to be very “outdated”. They told women who were considered to be Fascist to reject such movements. The Fascist also were also seen to see eye to eye with the Church, which was the first time in Italy after almost 70 years of hostility between church and state. Fascists and the Church came to an agreement regarding gender role. This was especially true when it came to many Church teachings, such as the condemnation for women who had been working outside the home, citing that the only place women should be working in is in her home. In 1929, a pact on gender roles in Italy would be signed between the Church and Italy. Even with the pact in place, in the 1930s, women came together to protest against

A woman’s sexual conduct in Italy, especially in the south, and some parts of the rural north, was much more important than other parts of Italy. While in general for men, Italian society had turned a “blind eye” to their conduct. In these particular regions, it was said each family had an “honor code” to maintain. If it was known that the female had lost her virginity before marriage, it was viewed that the head male figure in the home was not able to “control” the females in his home. Such activities were said to have brought great shame upon the family’s name. This meant that if a woman was thought to have betrayed her family through her sexual conduct, her husband or her family, such as her father, or brother were allowed to punish her as they saw fit whether it was physical abuse or even torture, in order to keep their “honor” at the highest level possible. It was known during this time that it was a man’s duty to uphold his family’s honor, even if upholding this honor meant killing the female to restore honor to his family, which is known as an “honor