Mirella Serri, “We need to be heard about 7th October”
Over 17,000 people have so far joined the appeal “You should not remain silent” launched by the Setteottobre Association (October 7 Association), calling on international organizations to recognize what happened on October 7 as “femicide, mass rape and crime against humanity.” In continuity with this petition, the association has convened for the late afternoon of Thursday, March 7 in Rome a marathon oratory of women from the worlds of culture, politics, institutions and feminism. They shall speak in Piazza Santi Apostoli starting at 6 pm, sharing the idea that October 7 constitutes “a wound that anyone who cares about elementary rights should feel as their own.”
The initiative is supported by the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities and the Jewish Community of Rome. The many endorsements received so far include that of Mirella Serri, author among others of the essay Uomini contro: La lunga marcia dell’antifemminismo in Italia (Men against: The long march of antifeminism in Italy). “Following October 7, public demonstrations in Italy have multiplied. But how many of these demonstrations were dedicated specifically to the violence against women, to the children beheaded during the vicious October 7 attack? None,” the Roman intellectual told Pagine Ebraiche.
There is a “a deafening silence on Israeli women and their suffering,” she said. The violence and mass rape “were premeditated as intentional acts to crush Israel,” Serri recalled. Yet voices of protest have been feeble and insufficient, so far. Hence the need “to make a lot of noise, because the fury against Israeli women is fury on women all over the world.”
The oratory marathon, the association Setteottobre announced, “will be also an opportunity to call for the release of the dozens of hostages still in the hands of Hamas, about whom the world seems to have completely forgotten.” It is one of the issues closest to the association, along with full accountability of the terrorist. On February 12, Setteottobre submitted, a formal request to the Prosecutor Office at the International Criminal Court in The Hague “for the investigation of crimes against humanity and genocide committed by Hamas.”