«QThis country of virilos who pass for the most gifted men in the world and then fail to conquer a woman on their own! Furthermore, What kind of young men are these who, to get a woman, have to have her served on a platter like a pheasant?». When Angelina Merlin, known as Lina, pronounced these words in the Senatemany colleagues looked away. It was the price to pay for those who had dared to challenge one of the most deep-rooted taboos of post-war Italy: address the issue of brothels. She was responsible for Law no. 75 of 20 February 1958, which closed brothels and abolished public regulation of prostitution, establishing for the first time that exploitation could not have the seal of legality.
Lina Merlin’s battle
The battle lasted ten years. In Parliament they called her ironically “the senator of the brothels”, but she accepted the nickname like a medalto: «I don’t close houses» he replied, «I open the conscience of a country». With that law, around six hundred official brothels were eliminated, and with them an entire administrative structure that regulated, controlled and humiliated thousands of women. The conditions were dramatic: exhausting hours, invasive medical checks, no legal protection. Poverty, social isolation and violence were daily. Sexually transmitted diseases, coercion and physical and psychological exploitation were commonplace.
Since then the Merlin Law has remained an unstable point of equilibrium. There are those who consider it outdated, those who defend it as a safeguard of civilization, who calls for an update. In recent years there have even been those who have proposed the reopening of brothels, speaking of an alleged “safe regulation”. But Merlin’s legacy remains clear: dignity is not a negotiable matter.
As she herself recalled in a famous speech: «Ladies and gentlemen, many of you are eminent jurists and I am not, but I know the story. In 1789 the rights of man were proclaimed in France… and the constitutions of other countries conformed to that proclamation which in practice was only Platonic, because Only the man with trousers was considered a citizen and not the women». This phrase summarizes the underlying theme of his commitment: bringing historical awareness into the parliamentary halls and transforming criticism into concrete action.
Lina Merlin, portrait of an anti-fascist
Lina Merlin (1887-1979) linked her name to Law no. 75 of 20 February 1958, known as the Merlin Law, which abolished brothels. Here in 1961. (Photo: Carlo Bavagnoli / Mondadori Portfolio)
A small woman, with a steady gaze and a clear voice, capable of challenging a world that did not yet contemplate the word “equality”. Born in 1887 in Pozzonovo, in the Padua area, into a large, bourgeois family, he grew up among books and ideals. From a young age he showed a instinctive sense of justice: he couldn’t stand arroganceneither the domestic one nor that of the powerful.
When in 1919 he decided to join the Socialist Party, it was a choice of field and life. At home they called her “peacemaker”an affectionate and biting nickname for her obstinate pacifist faith, which led her to oppose Italy’s intervention in the First World War. A war that took two brothers away from her, and strengthened in her the idea that no cause could be worth so much pain. In the following years, the word became his weapon.
He collaborated on The defense of women workersthe symbolic magazine of female socialism, founded by Anna Kuliscioffof which she became director, and at the Paduan weekly The echo of the workers. It was in that militancy and printed media environment that he met Dante Gallani, doctor and socialist deputy: a profound understanding of ideas and feelings was born between the two. In party meetings, Lina stood out for her tenacity and clarity. In 1924 they entrusted her with an extraordinary task for a woman of the time: lead the socialist electoral campaign in Veneto. In those months collected and documented the violence of the fascist squadristi, a dossier that he handed over to Giacomo Matteotti, shortly before his famous speech against the regime.
After the kidnapping and murder of the deputy, the young militant was registered as a subversiveand in less than 24 months she was fired from her job as a teacher because she refused to take the oath of loyalty to the regime, obligatory for public employees, and arrested five times: in 1926, in the midst of fascist repression, she attempted to flee to Milan, but he ended up in prison and then exiled to Sardinia. He returned to freedom in a A country now dominated by fascism, she married Gallani, a widower and father of two children, but their happiness was short-lived: he died after four years.
In the aftermath of September 8, 1943, Lina was once again on the front lines. He participated in the Resistance, organizing, with Ada Gobetti and other anti-fasciststhe Women’s Defense Groups: a network of courage, support and action. After the Liberation, the Socialist Party called her to be part of the management and the Lombard regional government of the Cln (National Liberation Committee) of Upper Italy, where she took care of the reorganization of schools as deputy commissioner for Education.
In 1946 she became one of 21 women elected to the Constituent Assembly. She is responsible for the inclusion of the words “sex distinction” in Article 3 of the Constitution, among the criteria that cannot determine discrimination: a fundamental parameter to prevent laws with a discriminatory nature against women. Two years later she was elected senator and, in 1953, she remained the only woman in the Senate. “It was said that the Senate had only one woman, but one too many,” he said, with a smile that did not mask his bitterness.
In 1958 she was elected to the Chamber and participated in the Anti-Mafia Commission. But her consistency, often uncomfortable, cost her isolation and criticism even within her own party. In 1961 she left the PSI, disappointed but never tamed. In the following years he withdrew from active political life, rejecting any invitation to run again. Instead, she dedicated herself to writing her own story, urged by her adopted daughter. Her memoirs, published posthumously in 1989 on the initiative of Senator Elena Marinucci, restore the portrait of a woman who never sought consensus, but coherence.
Memory takes voice
For contemporary scholars of women’s history, Lina Merlin is a key figure of Italian modernity. Luciana Percovich, professor and researcher at the Free Women’s University of Milan, read her profile in terms of “original feminism”. The writer and essayist Elisabetta Rasy spoke about her ability to combine ethics and politics, intelligence and concreteness, within a world still hostile to women.
Lina Merlin, who died in 1979 at the age of 92, a socialist, was among the authors of the Constitution (photo Ansa).
Memory, however, does not only live in books: it also returns to theaterswhere Lina Merlin’s life and commitment are conveyed through the voice and body of the actors. Among the most recent shows: One of many by Nicole De Leo, who brings to life the letters of the women from the brothels in dialogue with the senator; Lost women by Daria Martelli, who presents testimonies from the 1950s; and the recent stage reading Life teachers and thought-Lina Merlin curated by Ombretta De Biase, which took place at the Libreria delle Donne in Milan and which brings her political thought and concrete commitment back to life.
His memory is also intertwined with urban space: several Italian cities have remembered her through streets, squares, plaques and a garden in Padua. Each dedication is a tangible sign of recognition of his commitment and an invitation not to forget the battles for dignity and equality. The garden, in particular, becomes a powerful metaphor: just as Merlin opened spaces of freedom where exploitation and silence previously reigned, so the places that remember her today tell of a different Italy, made of courageous choices.
The senator died in Padua in 1979 and rests in the Monumental Cemetery of Milan: her burial is part of a journey dedicated to great women.