Events for 25 November 2020

On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, La Rete Antiviolenza di Milano in collaboration with the Municipality is organizing various initiatives and meeting opportunities.

First of all, it will be an opportunity to present data on the women welcomed by the Centres in the first six months of this year. Months characterized, as we all know, by the Covid 19 emergency, which has had important repercussions both for women victims of violence and for the work of the Centres that receive them.

Tuesday 24th November

Presentation of the guide on double violence, also known as institutional violence or secondary victimisation with CADMI, Law Enforcement and Social Services. www.cadmi.org/ladoppiaviolenza
Telefono Donna participates in the webinar “Orfani di femminicidio” (Orphans of Femicide) organised by Regione Lombardia with the Inner Wheel Club of Monza. From 15.00 to 17.00. To participate please send an e-mail to eventi.regionelombardia@in-rete.net

Wednesday 25 November 2020

Once again, this year Palazzo Marino, seat of the municipal administration, will display its civic flag at half-mast. “A sign of mourning for all victims of femicide and an expression of solidarity with their families. This year it is more important than ever to stand alongside women, because gender-based violence has significantly increased during the pandemic, and women must be reassured that refuge houses never close and the work of the associations does not stop” said Daria Colombo, Mayor’s Delegate for Equal Opportunities.
As part of the weekly column “Milano. L’altro sguardo”, the Municipality’s web-radio, dedicated to addressing fundamental social issues from a women’s point of view, presents Daria Colombo, the Mayor’s Delegate for Equal Gender Opportunities. Daria interviews Fabio Roia, a magistrate who has long worked alongside women against violence, and Miriam Pasqui, head of the Municipality of Milan’s Anti-Violence Network, on the theme of gender-based violence. The interview will air at 5.00 pm and will be recorded in podcast, so that it can be listened to again at any time. https://www.comune.milano.it/web/incomune-webtvradio
CeAS – Artistic installation promoted by “OrMe” (“Ortica Memoria”) and shared with the Associations of the region which cooperate in various ways against men’s violence against women. Stories of women victims and women who have come out of the spiral of violence with the help of the services. The event has the patronage of Municipio 3. The installation can be viewed on 25 November in Viale Cutuli (Rubattino area).
The video story “Don’t ask. It’s not important”, which also features the actress Paola Cortellesi. At 10.00 a.m., live streaming from the Web TV Camera dei Deputati and at 11.30 a.m. on Maria Edera Spadoni’s FB page. The video project, organized in collaboration with the Centro Antiviolenza Cerchi d’Acqua in Milan, is a story about the artistic installation ” What were you wearing?”. A journey into the stories and clothes of women who survived sexual violence. www.cerchidacqua.org.
Fondazione Somaschi, in collaboration with the City Hall of zone 4 and the Municipality of Milan, will present the online training “Educare alla Parità di Genere” (Educating for Gender Equality), dedicated to those who work with the educational, cultural and social organizations in the area. The first session will be today from 6.30 pm to 8.00 pm. Participation is free but it is necessary to register by sending an e-mail to: areascuole@fondazionesomaschi.it. The second session will be held on 9 December. For further information about the project: link.
La Grande Casa in partnership with Sorgenia, #sempre 25 novembre – raising young people’s awareness of the theme of combating gender-based violence: at 11.00 a.m., on the Repubblica home page, it will be possible to follow the talk “#sempre25novembre: tutti i no che servono contro la violenza sulle donne”. (always 25 November: every No! serves against violence against women) Moderated by the journalist Laura Pertici, Gianfilippo Mancini, CEO of Sorgenia, the philosopher Michela Marzano, the rapper Ernia and Alessia Brezzi, an instructor at La Grande Casa, will talk about the subject. At 7.00 p.m. live talk on the Instagram @Holyernia profile during which rapper Ernia together with conductor/dj Ema Stokholma will try to answer any worries and questions raised. Download the press release here.
Associazione Lule and Associazione INC – Itinerari Narrativi Contemporanei present an awareness-raising project on the issue of trafficking and sexual exploitation, a project born of the collaboration between the two entities. Creative writing and social commitment meeting: in December, a collection of stories by INC writers who met and interviewed women victims of trafficking, exploitation and violence, hosted by Lule Onlus residential facilities, to collect their testimonies and translate them into fictional stories will be published (Edizioni Saecula). Available online on Lule’s Facebook page and YouTube channel from the afternoon.
Cerchi d’Acqua participates in the Legacoop event “Jenner caffè” with the president Attilio d’Adda. Short interviews with cooperatives in the area to illustrate the progress of activities during the pandemic period and possible changes and developments in the future. The initiative will be advertised through a video broadcast on all social channels The broadcast will be available on the Legacoop website Legacoop on 25 November.
SVS DAD ONLUS and SVSeD present the online questionnaire on economic violence, carried out within the C.E.N.T.R.A. project, with the University of Milan, GENDERS interdepartmental research centre and funded by the Equal Opportunities Department – Presidency of the Council of Ministers. It will be followed by the communication campaign designed by the students of the European Institute of Design to inform and raise awareness of economic violence, which is often neither perceived nor acknowledged. To go to the questionnaire click here.
The President of the Equal Opportunities and Civil Rights Commission of the Municipality of Milan, Diana De Marchi, in collaboration with PACTA dei Teatri, Soccorso Rosa onlus and with the support of the Council for Equal Opportunities of the Lombardy Region, presents the meeting-show in streaming “Adesso liberi”, uploaded to the PACTA of the SALONE Theatres YouTube channel, included in the Palimpsest 2020/2021 I talenti delle donne (The talents women have), promoted by the Culture Department of the Municipality of Milan.
Città Metropolitana di Milano is organizing the event “Noi contro la violenza 2020” (Us against violence 2020), a communication initiative promoted on the occasion of 25 November. It foresees the installation in Milan’s Idroscalo park, of red benches which will bear the names and details of some of the structures in the area to which women can turn. The initiative will be advertised through a video broadcast on all social channels.
SVS DAD ONLUS, Telefono Donna and Caritas Ambrosiana take part in VivaVittoria Milano’s call to action on social channels, for the production of a shared relational work (partecipants will contribute a 50×50 cm knitted square to construct a symbolic blanket) to say NO to Violence on Women. All the info on www.vivavittoria.it.

Friday 27 November

Foreign Women Group of Anti-Violence Network organize a day oftraining for cultural linguistic mediators on violence.
Production and distribution of comic booklets for foreign women.
Presentation of the video with the different looks, faces and expressions of foreign women.

Exhibition “What were you wearing? The survivors of sexual violence respond”

“Don’t ask. It’s not important.” Presentation and screening of the video-story against violence against women promoted by Vice President Maria Edera Spadoni with the support of the Chamber of Deputies and the collaboration of the Centro Antiviolenza Cerchi d’Acqua with the participation of Paola Cortellesi. On 25 November 2020 at 10.00 am, live streaming from the Chamber of Deputies web TV and at 11.30 am on Maria Edera Spadoni’s FB page.

For the first time on 8 March 2018, the Cerchi d’Acqua anti-violence centre held the exhibition “What were you wearing?” – Survivors of sexual violence respond.

An installation in which the clothes on display symbolically represent those worn during the violence suffered and are accompanied by brief insights that the women, who have undertaken journeys at Cerchi d’Acqua, wanted to share, beginning with their own experiences. The exhibition is inspired by the poem “What I was Wearing”© by Mary Simmerling. The idea was developed in 2013, in an art installation entitled “WHAT WERE YOU WEARING?” by Mary Wyandt-Hiebert, professor at the University of Arkansas, and Jen Brockman, director of the Sexual Assault Prevention Center at the University of Kansas.

It was born out of the need to shake the public’s attention and dispel stereotypes about sexual violence. Too often, in fact, the question “What were you wearing? How were you dressed?” implies a nuance of accusation, as if to say “you had it coming…”, turning the spotlight on those who suffer violence and not on those who act it. Since 2018 the exhibition has become itinerant, with several stops in various Italian cities where it is realized with the involvement of anti-violence centres in the different regions.

Further information on the website www.cerchidacqua.org

Materials for Foreign Women

Gender-based violence is a widespread but often overwhelming phenomenon, not least because sometimes the women who suffer it do not know who to turn to for help. For women who live in a country other than their country of origin and who do not know the language, this aspect is even more relevant. The Anti-Violence Network has worked through the Foreign Women Group to create some information tools dedicated to foreign women in Milan, so that they know where to turn if they are experiencing violence and need help.

Available materials:

the video “You can be free” with the contribution of foreign mediators and some of the women assisted by the centres;
the poster with the contact details of the Anti-Violence Network in seven languages: English, French, Spanish, Romanian, Arabic, Sinhalese and Chinese. Download it here.
the comic booklet in seven languages with illustrations by Monica Biondi. Download it here.