Abuses among women with disabilities are more numerous, unfortunately they are much less aware and for this reason many times do not report. They cannot count on adequate support services and are often victims of discrimination and multiple abuses, especially of a psychological and relational nature. But the phenomenon, which is growing dramatically throughout Italy also due to Covid, is complex to map and monitor due to the lack of disaggregated statistical data. It is the photograph drawn during the event promoted by the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired, thanks also to the particular impulse of the senator Urania Papatheu as a member of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into Femicide which took place today in Rome at the Sala Zuccari of the Senate. Objective: to urge a joint effort by institutions and public opinion to become aware of this serious situation, to help women with disabilities to break the wall of silence, and to implement adequate measures to eliminate this dark and invisible side of violence against women.
The event first of all highlighted how women with disabilities are exposed to a greater risk of suffering violence than other women, recalling the latest Istat data available (2014). While 31.5% of women without limitations have suffered some form of physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, the percentage rises to 36.6% for women with disabilities, while the risk of being raped or attempted rape is double for women with disabilities (10%) compared to those without limitations (4.7%). All this compared to 31.4% of women with disabilities who have suffered psychological violence from their current partner, compared to 25% of able-bodied women. Yet, even in the face of these evidences, in Italy a system of protection and management is still very lacking. We never talk about women with disabilities or do it when it is too late and the cases are sensational news.
“As long as we continue to deny identity and value to the human, emotional, sexual and social sphere of disabled women, considering disability only as such, violence against these women will remain easier to act, increasingly difficult to bring out and impossible to manage and eliminate – he declared Linda Timber, vice president of Uici. This is also because, as evidenced by the work of voluntary associations and experts, it is women with disabilities themselves who do not recognize when they are victims of violence. When, with difficulty, they decide to denounce the system, it is often unable to give them adequate answers, increasing the sense of loneliness and fragility. First of all, it is essential to ensure full accessibility and usability of the reception and support services, to promote specific training actions aimed at assistance center operators, as well as police, health care and judicial personnel so that they are equipped with appropriate knowledge and tools. Equally important – continued Linda Legname – are the awareness campaigns, starting from the family and the school, to combat those forms of violence, even invisible, against women with disabilities but which deeply undermine the construction of their life project and their happiness “.
“I am very attached to the issue of disability because this teaches me to study and listen to the voices of marginalized people, not to think I have all the answers, rather to seek more complete and more complex questions, not to make things go well for me. how are they, doing a lot of self-criticism and stopping to reflect on my mistakes and those of society. – declared the senator Urania Papatheu – In fact, the only disability I feel I have is being a woman today. And those who are lucky enough not to be affected by disabilities must take care and worry about those who are less fortunate ”.
The event gave a picture of a serious phenomenon, and still almost completely submerged. The experts called by UICI first of all highlighted a problem of lack of awareness on the part of disabled women who are victims of violence, who do not know how to recognize when they are the object of violence, often of a relational type and perpetrated in the family of origin or acquired, such as cases more frequent – and which manifests itself through forms of control – from the management of money or one’s time to the education of children or even with abuse in the workplace or in school. The key point is therefore to enable women with disabilities to recognize the gestures that conceal violence. It follows the need to increase the responsiveness of the system which highlights important shortcomings because there is a lack of adequate training of operators and tools, including information, suitable for the different forms of disability. Just think, in the case of blind disabled women, of the difficulties they may encounter in reaching and orienting themselves in places of welcome and support or even in finding information on help paths, when not supported by voice aid technologies or compatible with the braille writing. In this respect, the role of anti-violence centers becomes fundamental and the good practices that some territories already express should be mapped, extended and networked, as is the case of associations and active experiences in Turin, Pisa, Rome, Bologna and Nuoro. Finally, it is essential to promote and strengthen the paths of taking charge, protection and regaining self-esteem and the sense of independence of women with disabilities to allow them to escape potentially or actually violent situations.
With this initiative, the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired intended to launch a new phase of attention on the issue of violence against women with disabilities in light of the emergency highlighted by the data. In this sense, the UICI will be able to make its know-how and local structures present in more than 100 territories available to institutions and associations supporting women for common initiatives to raise awareness and enhance adequate, targeted and personalized interventions.
On 25 November, which is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women all over the world, the women of the UICI sections unite in a great initiative of mobilization and denunciation from the north to the south of Italy. Executives, girls, volunteers and members of the Union will create a flashmob in squares and places of the institutions, performing a series of symbolic gestures, from artistic performances in which they will paint the public benches red to the exhibition of red shoes, up to the organization of initiatives and public debates to stimulate awareness of the problem and promote cultural change in the country so that it finally recognizes and protects the subjectivity of women with disabilities.
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