Violence against women

Violence against women and girls is a serious health and human rights issue. At least one in five of the world’s female population has been physically or sexually abused  at some time in their lives. Many, including pregnant women and young girls, experience severe, sustained or repeated attacks.

Violence against women is also a serious cause of death. A woman’s chances of dying at the hands of a partner is much higher than her dying from ill-health, traffic accidents and malaria combined.

The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, adopted by the United Nations in 1993, defines violence against women as “any act of genderbased violence”, whether physical, psychological or  sexual.

Are there cases of violence in Narni?

In the transmission “La vita in diretta”, the dramatic story by Barbara Ferranti, the 47-year-old was attacked by a man near her home in Narni. She escaped from an attempted rape, thanks “to a self-defense course, where they also explained how to use pepper spray”.

Barbara said: “I went to dinner with my friends in a restaurant and I returned home at 11 pm. I stopped at the gate and
I pulled out my keychain with the pepper spray attached.”

That was when she was attacked from behind. “He grabbed my waist and I defended myself with the pepper spray. He went for my face, scratching me.”

Narni opens an anti-violence center to help women break the silence

An ‘Anti-violence center’ office will be opened at the headquarters of the Beata Lucia Institute in Piazza Galeotto Marzio in Narni. It will provide all the services needed by women who suffer from domestic violence. From the second half of March free yoga, manufactured goods and autobiographical writing courses will start.

The center will help women to overcome whatever type of violence they have suffered. It will offer support to women to take back their freedom.

The center provides telephone and face-to-face support services aiming to help women who want to escape from situations of violence; psychological and legal assistance, and, if necessary, support to access health and social services, the courts and the police force.