There are different events in countries all over the world to celebrate International Women's Day, but Italy has got a flower to symbolise it – the mimosa (so now you know why D&G sometimes used mimosa prints for their dresses...).
The Italian tradition of giving mimosa to women on 8th March can be traced back to February 1946 when a group of women reunited to talk about the celebration at the HQ of the Unione Donne Italiane (Union of Italian Women) in via Giustiniani 5, Rome. A debate started about organising something really special for International Women's Day, an event that was first celebrated in Italy in 1922, but that was abolished under Fascism. So 8th March 1946, was going to be an important date being the first day dedicated to women after the end of the war.
Some of the women in the group, Teresa Mattei, Rita Montagnana, and Teresa Noce, suggested to choose a flower that inspired joy and happiness and turn it into a symbol. Violets, carnations, roses, orchids and daffodils were mentioned, but some of them were too expensive or were deemed as too bourgeois. Eventually the mimosa was chosen: characterised by soft pompom-like flowers and an intoxicating fragrance, the plant can grow also in nutrient poor soil, so it was a good metaphor was the resilience of women. Blooming in early March it would have also been easy to find it and wouldn't have been as expensive as orchids. The motion was voted and the flower became throughout the years a sign of love, respect and appreciation of women.
In more recent years the celebration became more commercial, with women often opting to go out and have special dinners and parties, but in this dark political days, it is clear that this should be a day to ponder rather than a fleeting moment for happy celebrations.
Just yesterday in Italy, the country where a group of women chose such a delicate yet stubborn flower as their symbol, two young women were killed by their husband and boyfriend respectively; in the current Italian government men also seem to have the most powerful positions, with prominent ministers (such as Matteo Salvini, Italian Minister of the Interior) who everyday excel in their favourite (and saddest) sport – offending women of all ages who publicly disagree with them (a councillor from the far right League party recently told singer Emma Marrone who had spoken about opening ports to migrants, "to open her legs and get paid") or suggesting women they should stay at home and have babies as their role is that of creating life (yes, they must have thought The Handmaid's Tale is a political manual...).
Even the ever glamorous realm of fashion is not very inspiring when it comes to liberating women, despite designers always claim they are empowering us via their creations: feminism has been turned into a slogan for fast fashion or luxury T-shirts; most models still get Photoshopped in adverts, publications and features so that they can look impossibly perfect and beautiful and, while we cheer for those labels who bring diversity on the runway, we also know that most fashion houses still prefer thin white models with emaciated looks in their shows.
Besides, while co-ed shows are helping eroding gender differences, as stated in previous posts, there are still very few women writing about menswear, while it is not so rare for men to write about womenswear. Yet the greatest crime committed by the fashion industry against women regards garment productions: women employed in sweatshops in developing nations all over the world are usually obliged to work in unsafe and stressful conditions and they are paid very little to produce our fast fashion clothes (is it ethical and acceptable to wear T-shirts with feminists slogans shouting about sisterhood and equal rights when the person who made them doesn't seem to have such rights?).
Right when you feel our modern times may be lacking genuinely inspiring icons, you realise that you shouldn't be looking for them in a glamorous present, but in the darkest pages history ever wrote: one of such icons is the late Francesca "Mimma" Del Rio, a partisan. In December 1944, when she was only 19, Mimma was arrested by the Nazi-Fascists. Although she was pregnant (her baby died shortly after the birth), she was tortured and abused every day for an entire month, but miraculously managed to escape. In her honour the town of Bibbiano, in Reggio Emilia, Italy, will dedicate to Mimma a square tomorrow.
Together with other partisans like Teresa "Anuska" Vergalli, Mimma was politically engaged in the Gruppi di difesa della donna (Women's Defense Groups) formed during the Resistance in Italy. Anuska and Mimma wrote in a letter dated 18th April 1945 (a week before Italy was liberated from Nazi-Fascism): "Our aim is to unite all Italian women in one organism that can have an impact on the free and democratic government of tomorrow to defend women's rights and enable women to assert them." When the war ended many partisan women who had helped liberating Italy went back to their ordinary lives: it is estimated there were around 35,000 women in Italy who joined the partisans, but only 19 were given a medal of honour.
In interviews, books and documentaries, many of the partisan women often recounted the horrific tortures they went through when they were captured. Nowadays women are subjected to other forms of torture, in some cases they remain physical (think about domestic violence or sex trafficking), in others they are psychological (just ask yourself: is it fair for a Minister to ridicule a woman on his Twitter account and get away with it?) and quite often they are dictated by prejudices (the pay equity gap always seems to be in the news...). Teresa and Mimma's words still resonate with power more than 60 years after they were written, it's about time we ditched the superficial feminist shirt and started listening to the real feminist icons.
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