An online initiative that began October 22 will be showcasing the stories of 13 female migrants in Italy who have come from war zones. They all are victims of violence.
The Italian Sommerse e Salvate ("The Drowned and the Saved") initiative is promoting 13 online live events to "discover 12 drowned stories." It tells the stories of refugee and asylum seeking women coming from war zones, who have been victims of various forms of violence.
The name of the initiative, whose primary aim is to give a face and voice to many female migrants, is also the title of a well-known book by Primo Levi, an Italian-Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor.
'A sea sometimes drowns, sometimes saves'
The virtual appointments are intended to serve the discovery of "drowned stories, little known and often ignored by a narration that is usually slanted towards males."
"Stories of women who cross the sea — the sea that sometimes drowns them and sometimes manages to save them," the initiative says online.
The initiative is part of the E-sister-e for Peace: la Sorellanza Senza Frontiere ("Sisterhood Without Borders") project promoted by the Pangea Foundation in Italy. It began on October 22 on the Facebook page of Rome-based theater company NaufragarMèDolce, and on the Pangea Foundation page as the first in a series.
The E-sister-E for Peace project is funded by the National Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security of the Italian foreign ministry. It maps out the conditions of refugees and asylum seekers in reception centers in Tuscany. Each episode will have a different guest.
'Courage is not enough'
''Listening to these stories, we get the feeling of a human going through something inhumane; someone who has been made into an object or a puppet," said Chiara Casarico and Tiziana Scrocca from NaufragarMèDolce, the authors and actresses of the show.
"Strings held by invisible hands move the story of these women, who do not have the freedom to choose what their lives will be. An escape seems the only possibility to cut those strings. But often, once they get here, these women are still pushed around and seen as objects," according to Casarico and Scrocca.
Simona Lanzoni, Vice President of the Pangea Foundation, stressed the "need to meet together, recognize each other and fight together. Their stories teach us that courage is not enough," Lanzoni said.
She added that the aim is to focus on peace, war and the condition of women as well as the inequalities and violence they suffer. Moreover, the initiative hopes to highlight the importance of solidarity, awareness raising and sisterhood.