The March 8th celebrations, amid calls for women's rights and equality, barely had time to wrap up before those same demands returned to the streets in the form of protests. This morning in Cagliari, around a hundred people demonstrated in front of the Regional Council against the Bongiorno bill: "Without consent, it's rape," the slogan of the sit-in promoted by the Arestəs feminist and transfeminist coordination group , to denounce a potential step backwards in protections against sexual violence.
The activists drew attention to the proposed amendment to Article 609-bis of the Criminal Code.
"The reform," explains Loredana Boi , a lawyer who works with the Liberas anti-violence center, "introduces the concept of the victim's opposing will: in practice, the crime of sexual violence is only constituted if the person is able to clearly express their dissent . It shifts the core of the law from consent, previously envisaged and also recognized by the Istanbul Convention and other European legal systems, to the need for the victim to demonstrate her opposition."
The shift from consensus to dissent is under scrutiny. "The victim will have to defend themselves, not the perpetrator of violence," says Sara Cuccaru of the Strasura collective in Olbia. "It only accentuates secondary victimization. We don't want this law to pass."
"Furthermore, they don't consider all the other existing subjectivities that the law must protect," adds Gabriella Mureddu of the Istravanadas collective in Nuoro. "It seems absurd to have to explain the concept of violence in 2026 in a democratic state . We're furious, and we won't stop."
"Women will become silent, they will no longer speak," says Luisanna Porcu , coordinator of the Onda Rosa anti-violence center in Nuoro. "I will always remember a 19-year-old girl who had just graduated high school: her father had died, her mother was in crisis, they had a little brother, and she worked in a restaurant. In the evenings, her employer would lower the shutters and abuse her for two years. If this law were passed today, she would never be able to prove that it was rape."
