A woman is murdered in her own home every three days in Italy. And it’s not just an Italian problem. Violence against women is on the rise all around the world. “Femicide” is the intentional killing of a woman or girl by a man because they are female. Often the victim has just ended a relationship, or tried to break away from her partner. These murders are reported in the press as if they were an anomaly. The headlines imply that the man was depressed, or that the woman provoked him somehow. The root causes of femicide are rarely considered.
Nearly 70 % of these women are killed by men they lived with. Most of the rest are killed by former boyfriends and ex-husbands. The problem is not unique to Italy. Most cases of femicide are preceded by physical abuse, threats or intimidation, sexual violence or financial abuse and dependence. Laura Roveri was 25 when her ex-boyfriend stabbed her repeatedly in a disco. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, he claimed he never intended to kill her, and only received a seven year sentence.
“Femicidio” looks into femicides in Italy. It focuses on cases that rocked the country and exposed misogyny in Italian culture, and reveals the macho mentality that leads husbands, ex-partners, and boyfriends to murder.