A request made to the University of Messina as simple as it is revolutionary: to include a course on “Sexual and affective education and actions to combat gender violence” among the subjects chosen for free credits.
While in recent weeks there is controversy over a controversial amendment to the Valditara bill which, by applying a restriction already in force in high schools, makes informed parental consent necessary for all emotional and sexual education activities in middle schools, UniMe students are trying to go in the opposite direction.
In a country where gender violence has cultural roots that often go back well before adolescence, prohibiting or hindering education only means postponing the problem, leaving it to grow in the dark. This is why the role of universities becomes even more central: it is one of the last educational spaces free from restrictions that today seem anachronistic, one of the few in which true cultural prevention can be carried out without ideological obstacles.
So why not institutionalize it? And it is exactly from this moral imperative that the student association UDU Messina – Union of University Students has decided to start: transforming the indignation for all cases of violence against women into a concrete proposal, memory into construction, pain into collective responsibility.
“Statistics matter little, when there are broken lives in the middle. And there is not enough distance to feel safe – the UDU representatives write – this is demonstrated by the painful story of Sara Campanella, which directly affected our university community. Her story reminds us that stalking, harassment, dynamics of possession and manipulation are not distant ghosts: they also inhabit the spaces of the University, between students, between relationships that begin in their twenties and which sometimes already hide signs of risk”.
The UDU, among other things, recalls two national regulations that already strongly indicate the path to follow: Law 119/2013, which establishes the Action Plan against sexual and gender violence and explicitly provides for educational and awareness programs in universities and Law 69/2019 – Red Code, which imposes specific multidisciplinary training to prevent violence and promptly recognize risk situations.
The State, therefore, already officially recognizes training as the key to prevention. But while the world of school feels limited, the university has the opportunity – and the duty – to fill a void. The UDU proposal is not an “extra” course, but aims to represent a cultural pillar.
“Like the already existing multidisciplinary “Sustainability” teaching, this new path would also be open to the entire University, interdisciplinary, creditable as a transversal training activity. UDU has also already thought about the contents: scientifically based emotional and sexual education; recognition of early signs of psychological violence, control and manipulation; knowledge of protection services and anti-violence centers; analysis of digital relational dynamics; legal, psychological and sociocultural insights.
The Association also proposes the creation of a discussion table with the anti-violence centers in the area, the Non Una Di Meno – Messina association, the CGIL Women’s Coordination, the competent university structures.
Today more than ever, while elsewhere doors are closing and barriers are being raised, the university can and must be a defense of knowledge, prevention and rights. And the one in Messina can lead the way with a strong signal. Because the fight against violence comes from culture, education and training. It comes from the courage to do to change.
The UDU representatives have invited the University of Messina to take this step together and the rector Giovanna Spatari has already given her willingness to present the proposal at a national level so that the institution of the course is adopted in all Italian universities.