Festa della Donna 2025 is on 8th March and it’s a time to celebrate, empower and give thanks to women across the world. In Italy, this celebration is particularly important because it has begun to increasingly overlap with another remembrance day, Giornata Contro La Violenza Sulle Donne, typically done in November, which is dedicated to sharing stories and remembering those who have become victims to domestic violence and femicide.
According to the European Institute for Gender Equality, the term “femicide” refers to the killing of a woman or girl based on her gender. Unfortunately, there is still no universally agreed definition of femicide among EU countries, meaning that it has become hard to classify homicide as femicide, and draw comparison between the two. This means that a lot of murders of women, purely based on their gender may still be going unnoticed.
Italy is ranked one of the lowest countries in Europe in terms of gender equality and in 2023 it was estimated that 109 women were killed, half of which were victims of their ex partners, making it the third highest in Europe.
Therefore, this year for Festa della Donna, we’ve decided to commemorate four women who have made a profound impact on Italy, whether it be because they stand up to the patriarchy or have powerful life experiences that have provided inspiration to young girls and women across the world.
Cecilia Sala
As a journalist myself, I have looked up to Cecilia Sala for quite some time, but her name has become particularly important this year when she was arrested and detained for 21 days in Iran.
Sala has worked for a variety of Italian and International media, but is predominantly known for her work at Il Foglio, a daily Italian newspaper, and her politics podcast with Chora Media. She is a force of nature, as one of the few Italian women to become a war correspondent in Afghanistan, Ukraine and Iran.
However, her reporting at the end of last year, led her to an incredibly dangerous and precarious situation which almost cost her her life. Sala was arrested by Iranian authorities on December 19th and accused of “violating the law of the Islamic Republic” while on a reporting trip in Tehran. The arrest was thought to have been related to her recently released episode of her podcast “Stories,” in which she interviewed Zeinab Musavi, an Iranian standup comic who had spoken against the compulsory wearing of the hijab in her videos.
Sala recounted her devastating time in prison, where she was denied a bed, her glasses and food. “I started spending time counting my fingers, reading the ingredients on the bread bag and repeating the multiplication tables”, she told Politico in an interview. Luckily though, the Italian government, working with the embassy in Iran, was able to free her in early January.
Her story is inspiring to me, because she was arrested for simply doing her job and maintaining journalistic integrity, which is a pillar of democracy, in a country where the press and women are heavily suppressed. Her story of survival can help shed light on oppression in Iran and inspire continuous reporting on the region.
Letizia Battaglia
I wanted to spotlight Battaglia because she is my favourite photographer, and a recent exhibition of her work in London, reminded me just how phenomenal and important her work was. Battaglia was a photojournalist who dedicated her life to documenting the corruption and violence caused by the mafia in Sicily from the 1970s-1990s.
In her relentless pursuit to document organised crime in Italy, she used her camera to show the daily terror, putting it on the front page. Reporting for the daily newspaper L’Ora, she was present at every major crime scene in the city over two decades.
Battaglia said, “Photography changes nothing. Violence continues, poverty continues. Children are still being killed in stupid wars”, which in many ways is true, but her work has had such a long-lasting impact, that it continues to serve as a constant reminder of the influence of the mafia on Italy and the need for this to change.
Her photography of children on the streets with guns, old Sicilian ladies sitting on their porches, and corpses of mafia victims are both exceptionally beautiful and horrific at the same time. They capture how ever-present the mafia was, seeping into the everyday lives of Italians, down to those of children. Her documentary Shooting The Mafia, is well worth watching to understand her story and her career as a photographer.
Carlotta Vagnoli
Many of you might associate Vagnoli with her bold tattoos, but that’s not the only thing that’s bold about her.
Vagnoli rose to prominence on social media after becoming a columnist for various magazines, like GQ and Playboy, breaking the taboos around sex, consent and feminism. She has come out with several books on misogyny in Italy, including Poverine. Come non si racconta il femminicidio, which talks about this exact phenomenon.
She is a feminist hero for me because she selflessly and transparently discusses misogyny in Italian culture on instagram, to engage younger audiences, primarily Gen Z. Her videos went viral, particularly around the time of the tragic murder of the young Giulia Checchettin, by her ex-boyfriend, in 2023, which sent shock-waves across Italy and beyond.
According to Vagnoli, the issue isn’t only how we address the misogynistic culture that legitimizes violence against women but also the way we talk about it, especially in the way we frame the perpetrator. The murderer is often described as someone who lost his mind and committed a “crime of passion”. However, the Checchettin femicide is the perfect example to illustrate how this is almost never the case, as Philippo Turetta was an ordinary boy from a good family. Vagnoli therefore encourages us to call out these perpetrators for what they truly are: normal men who are products of patriarchy. Femicide is not a natural disaster, but the result of a deadly culture.
Bianca Balti
You might recognise Balti from this year’s San Remo Festival, as she presented it this year. The gorgeous, internationally-renowned model looked dashing in a series of long glamorous gowns, custom-made by the best Italian designers, to wear on stage. She has been on the cover of multiple magazines, fashion campaigns and runways throughout her successful modelling career.
Balti, a mother of two, was diagnosed with stage-3 ovarian cancer in September 2024, and is undergoing several treatments. In one of her speeches, she proudly spoke about her journey, from having a double mastectomy a few years ago, to shaving her head for chemotherapy. In her opening speech, she told the audience, “I don’t want to talk about the pain. I could have been lying in bed feeling sorry for myself, but instead, I want it to be a celebration of life tonight.”
Balti proves that no matter what hurdles life presents you with, you can always find something to be grateful for and be glamorous at the same time!
