It’s rare for Italian lawmakers from across the political spectrum to agree on anything. But on Tuesday, the lower house of Parliament unanimously ratified a law introducing the crime of femicide into Italy’s criminal code, punishable by life in prison.
(title from entry in NYT’s The Morning newsletter)
I’d say it’s about recognizing a fact of life that we have traditionally brushed under the carpet. By introducing femicide as a specific category it’ll be easier to talk about (or rather, harder not to talk about) just how fucking common it is for men to murder women.
It’s a huge problem in most if not all countries, and it doesn’t receive nearly as much attention as it deserves. The attention it does get is primarily through folk songs or true crime podcasts, not actual attention as a systematic issue that needs to be addressed as a societal problem.
So it won’t deter anyone from murdering women, but when it does happen it might make it easier for us to start actually doing something about it as a society.
Ah, I see it now. As someone who lives in Brazil with one of the highest rates of women being killed by their partners (or, usually, former partners), we had this classification for a long while, but I never understood as to why. Now I do!
(That’s the reason the lawmakers gave too.)