A fight for honor. How a 17-year-old girl changed Italian laws.
In 1965, an incident occurred in Italy that would later change the laws of the entire country. When a 17-year-old girl was offered in marriage, she refused. The issue was not the girl's age, but simply an unpleasant tradition that had become legal in Italian society. Soon the laws changed, and the unpleasant tradition ended.
The fight for honor: How a 17-year-old girl changed Italian laws?
Every nation has its own customs and traditions, some of which may seem strange to others. For example, some peoples in Central Asia and the Caucasus have a custom of kidnapping girls and kidnapping brides.
Nowadays, kidnapping girls and forcing them to marry is prohibited by law, and such cases are now carried out symbolically, that is, with the consent of both parties. However, when these customs appeared, young men kidnapped girls and forced them to marry without asking their consent. Cases of forced kidnapping still occur, but due to legal measures being taken against such rapists, the situation has changed for the better.
Until the 70s of the 20th century, a similar custom of kidnapping girls also existed in Italy. The law did not prohibit this practice. If a young man kidnapped, raped a girl, and demanded to marry her, the girl could do nothing legally. Naturally, the rapist escaped responsibility. It was this impunity that made kidnapping a tradition.
However, in 1965, 17-year-old Franca Viola challenged this absurd custom and changed everything. The girl refused to marry the man who had kidnapped and raped her. The girl was pressured, but Franca stood firm in her decision, because her parents were with her. In the end, the rapist was prosecuted.
After this incident, the Italian parliament revised the relevant laws. Deputies repealed the law exempting young men who married their victims from criminal liability.
**The Abduction of Franca Viola**
Franca Viola was born in Alcamo, Sicily, the "homeland" of the Italian mafia. At that time, in Italy, a woman's fate in many cases did not depend on herself. In Sicily, family honor and the reputation of girls before marriage were taken seriously. That is, even if girls were victims of violence, society prioritized family honor over protecting their rights and punishing the perpetrator. Franca grew up in such a society.
The beautiful 17-year-old Franca began to be courted by young men, but she did not agree to any of them. On December 26, 1965, one of these rejected men, Filippo Melodia, kidnapped the girl with his accomplices. The young man held Franca captive for eight days and raped her repeatedly. The girl's parents initially don't know who kidnapped Franca. Soon, rumors spread that Filippo kidnapped her. A few days later, the police release the girl, and the rapist is arrested.