Women demand scandal-plagued Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi resign
Women demand scandal-plagued Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi resignWomen rallied across Italy yesterday, incensed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's sex scandal which they say has hurt their dignity and reinforced outdated gender stereotypes.
Protesters shout out 100 per cent Italian, 0 per cent Berlusconian while holding panties in Milan yesterdayThousands of protesters marched through Naples and Palermo, carrying banners calling for Berlusconi to resign and chanting "Italy is not a brothel".
Organisers say the rallies have been prompted by Berlusconi's alleged liaisons with prostitutes and lurid media coverage of the scandals, but also aimed at drawing attention to wider problems for women's rights in Italian society.
"Enough!" chanted some of the tens of thousands of protesters who crowded into Rome's Piazza del Popolo square, including many men and entire families. Many protesters also held out panties and threw condoms during the demonstrations.
In Naples, a sign held up during a march there read: "No Bunga Bunga!" a reference to the alleged orgies held by the prime minister in his residences.
"We're here to say that Italian women are not all like Berlusconi's prostitutes. It's a horrible image that we're giving. We've become a joke in the rest of the world," said Maria Rosa Veritta, a protester in Milan.
Signs held up at the Rome protest read: Indignant! and Don't call me a prostitute, I'm a slave!." Many protesters waved pink flags and wore pink hats.
"We are defending the dignity of women," read a placard held up in Palermo. There were also two small protests in solidarity in Brussels and Tokyo.
The women's protests were organised by sisters Francesca and Cristina Comencini, both actresses. More than 50,000 women signed the movement's manifesto, which denounces "the indecent, repetitive representation of women as a naked object of sexual exchange".
Panty protestPeople have come up with innovative ways to protest against Berlusconi. In earlier protests, they threw panties and condoms at his villa
