Italy grapples with its patriarchal history as femicide cases shock the nation

Some are stabbed, some are shot, some are strangled. But all the women killed by femicide in Italy have one thing in common: they knew their killers.

Some are stabbed, some are shot, some are strangled. But all the women killed by femicide in Italy have one thing in common: they knew their killers. More than 100 women were killed in 2023. The term ‘femicide’ – which is typically when a woman is killed by a current or former partner - became so topical an Italian encyclopedia named it as its word of the year in 2023. Italy might have a female prime minister, but she makes a point of not identifying herself as a feminist. The country only criminalized crimes of passion in 1981, and the judicial system still often gives lighter sentences to male killers if their wives were unfaithful. In a notorious case in 2020, 80-year-old Antonio Gozzini was cleared of bludgeoning to death his 62-year-old wife, Cristina Maioli with a rolling pin while she slept and then slicing her throat and cutting up her legs because the court said he suffered a “raptus” or delirious jealousy over his wife’s job at a local school. Gozzini remains free today. The prevalence of domestic violence in Italy is fed by societal failures, says Lorella Zanardo, an activist, educator and documentary filmmaker.