Antonella Baccaro (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert).
TIn one month we will celebrate Mother’s Day. Never before has the political world been debating the role of this figure who enjoys a particular aura of sacredness in our country.
The surrogacy controversy and the first discussions on the right to abortion inflamed the opposing factionsand I wonder if talking about it today is really a priority for those who govern us.
But here, for once, I don’t want to talk to you about mothers’ rights but about their responsibilities. Like that of some of them, who arrived in Italy often in difficult conditions, who decide to respect their traditions, sometimes misinterpreting them, even in our territory, condemning their daughters to the terrible fate of a forced marriage.
In Italy there are not sufficient and accurate data that tell the incidence of the phenomenon. Second Actionaidwho deserves to take care of it, it is estimated that around two thousand girls are at risk every year.
The foreign communities most involved are those of Bangladesh, Mali, Somalia, Nigeria, India, Egypt and Pakistan. Since forced marriage was included in Italy as a crime within the Red Code, 35 crimes of coercion or induction into marriage have been recorded (August 2019 – December 2021).
Unfortunately, despite being included in the 2021-2023 anti-violence plan the creation of a mapping of these practices, since there is no operational plan, nothing has been accomplished yetdespite the fact that the chronicles have brought to light tragic cases, such as that of the Pakistani Saman.
Actionaid takes it upon itself to denounce it, drawing attention to the fact that in Italy it is often thought that it is the father who decrees the future of the girls, while it is the mothers who actually do it. Awareness must therefore start from schools to reach families, mothers. They are the ones to talk to so that they accept the changes in society.
A commitment that should start from the institutionstoo often lately focused on questionable objectives of cultural homologation instead of welcoming, integrating, transmitting the values of humanity and civilization that characterize our society.
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