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For each step forward moved in the right direction for reclaim our rights and our freedoms of choice, another hundred are made back. It is a bit like the game of the cat chasing its tail, a vicious circle from which we cannot escape.
At the center of the discrimination, this time, is the family, the place where the heart is kept, which however it cannot be considered as such if the children are not present within that nucleus. Because, needless to say, the family is also the tool through which a woman can fulfill herself.
And all the childless women? And who can’t have a baby? And does not those who feel at home in the arms of friends have the right to feel like a family in the same way? The words spoken by Antonio Tajani, on the occasion of the Forza Italia press conference on the initiatives organized for Mother’s Day, echo on the net like a bolt from the blue, reminding us that stereotypes to unhinge there are still many, too many.
“The family is for us the fundamental nucleus of society and must be defended, but it does not exist without children”. These are the words of the national coordinator of Forza Italia who then stated “the woman is not a mare, she is fully realized with motherhood”. Furthermore, “being a mother is a way to fulfill oneself”.
Mind you, ours is not a trial of Tajani and his claims – which in a few hours have become the trend of the day on Twitter – but to the umpteenth commonplace that for too long it influenced our way of life.
He has declared himself ready to apologize and we are ready to accept this apology. Because probably Tajani’s only fault is to have expressed aloud a thought that does not belong only to him. Because there are still those who believe that a woman can only be fulfilled with motherhood. Yet we have many examples to show to undermine these convictions, of extremely accomplished women even without children.
And we will never tire of saying that motherhood is a right that cannot be at the expense of work. And we thank Tajani for pointing this out during the same conference that indicted him. Because it is crucial for gender equality and equality that women have the same opportunities as men at work and that we have support as mothers. But we can no longer let the message through that a woman, not a mother, is a half woman.
And we can’t even afford to judge a family, if the members of that consider themselves as such. Because some of us feel at home, more than any other place in the world, in the arms of people with whom we don’t even have a blood bond. And if this isn’t family, then what is it? There are couples who are linked by affection, love and mutual support, who choose to share life by counting only towards each other, while others, on the other hand, cannot have children. Aren’t they a family either?
Maybe it’s really, just an unfortunate wrong phrase, that of Antonio Tajani. But it is the same that reminds us that we must always assert ours, despite the obstacles of Italian society the right to choose freely and consciously how to self-realize and how to live.
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