On February the 20th many migrant and italian women met in Bologna in order to discuss how to conquer their visibility during the strike and the demonstrations that will take place on March the 1st, and beyond. Last year many women got on strike and went to the streets. They accepted the challenge of showing what happen when migrant man and women who live in Italy cross their arms for one day, together with those italian men and women who refuse to see their right and their labour under attack, who refuse institutional racism. Last year many women got on strike and went on the streets, but not so many women as those who could have, and above all who would have. To get on strike, to determine their presence, to make their voice heard, is a double challenge for women, both migrant and italian.
We are again facing the death of a woman, and the severe wounding of
another, by the hand of a relative.
We are again facing femicide and violence in the name and on behalf of the
sense of male ownership of female lives.
We are again facing the criminal link between submission to the patriarchal
tradition and denial of inalienable human rights: as the terrible cases of
Hina Salem and Sanaa Dafani, even this time the male part of a family of
Pakistani immigrants tried to silence the rebellion of a young woman who was
against a fundamentalist view of religion and tradition according to which
every woman is destined to live without being able to decide about herself
and her freedom.
Women are the backbone of Africa. They have never known life to be different, accustomed throughout the ages to a responsibility, that they must cope with the problems of daily life and their families’ struggle for survival.
Every day hundreds of thousands of women walk the length and breadth of the continent in search of dignity and lasting peace. Countless numbers walk as far as 20km to bring water to their families. They then continue to the market in the hope of selling what little they own to earn enough to provide for their children. And their cycle of life continues unabated.
Illegal immigrants carry incredible personal stories. In Italy their estimated number is up to 750,000 - a quarter of all immigrants living in the country. Natalia - a Bolivian woman in her mid-twenties - was one of them. She lived with her family and the child she bore as a result of sexual abuse she suffered as a teenager in extreme poverty. Like many others, she borrowed money to escape, with the hope of repaying it as soon as she got a job overseas. "To enter Italy was easy. You just needed a valid passport and said you wanted to visit Italy," she said.
