News Center_ Discussions are escalating in Italy about the presence of patriarchal thinking in public discourse,with the emergence of political and social positions that re-raise questions about the criteria for evaluating women within society.

Italian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani sparked widespread controversy after statements in which he linked women’s clothing to “trustworthiness,”during his talk about his choice of political partner, using an example related to marriage.

During an event organized on the eighteenth of September, the Italian Prime Minister said that his son prefers to marry a woman who is “more trustworthy, serious, and capable of being a good mother”over one who is more beautiful, adding that her skirt should be “a little longer.”

The statements of Italian Minister Antonio Tajani sparked a wide wave of reactions in Florence, after he linked the length of a woman’s skirt to her “trustworthiness.”Two women placed a sarcastic ruler in front of their shop to turn skirt length into a criterion for trustworthiness, while women shared photos in short clothes on social media in protest against his statements.

Women's organizations confirmed that the controversy goes beyond the issue of clothing, stressing that evaluating women according to their bodies or behavior reproduces patriarchal patterns of thinking. The "Telefono Rosa Torino" organization concerned with combating violence against women considered it unacceptable for others to determine what women should wear or the role they should play within the family, demanding the minister apologize.

"Women's Clothing Should Not Be Subject to Men's Judgments"

On the twenty-second of September, reactions extended to the Senate, where female members of opposition parties appeared before the cameras wearing skirts. Raffaella Paita, head of the "Italia Viva" group in the Senate, which organized the protest, said that women's clothing should not be subject to men's judgments.

Female politicians from the ruling coalition also participated in the discussion, including Susanna Ceccardi, a member of the European Parliament, who responded to the Prime Minister's statements by wearing a skirt.

Throughout the discussion, women's organizations and labor unions stressed that a woman's freedom, dignity, and trustworthiness cannot be measured by her clothing.