A controversial council leaflet advising high-school students in a northern Italian city to avoid smiles and flashy clothing in a bid to stem the risk of rapists attacking them was withdrawn from circulation and the councillor concerned demoted Thursday evening.
In the leaflet, which spurred protests from high school girls and young women, the council in Cividale del Friuli near Udine in Friuli issued a proposed ‘anti-rape code’ saying girls and young women should avoid “smiling ironically or provocatively to strangers”.
They were also told to “avoid wearing valuable objects…and remember that the aggressor observes and selects his victims also on the basis of certain details like jewels and excessively elegant or showy clothing”.
Students staged demonstrations against the suggest code with a local student leader, Beatrice Bertossi, saying: “We are protesting because we deem unacceptable the phrases contained in this leaflet, but we also contest the advisability of a leaflet aimed at potential victims, when it is well-known that the prevention of violence must above all start from the aggressors”.
Students displayed placards in high schools including “we condemn patriarchal violence in schools’, “hands off our bodies, violence is never justified” and “against all oppression, against all oppressors”.
Bertoss said the students were holding meetings and also talking to their teachers to set up fresh protest initiatives “to reaffirm our choral condemnation of an initiative of this kind.
“We are convinced that you fight violence with education, not by blaming the victims”.