It was the summer of 1943, and she was gathering material for her thesis, titled "Red Istria ," which she would soon discuss at the University of Padua. She was Norma Cossetto , a temporary teacher and student, born May 17, 1920, in Santa Domenica di Visinada, Istria. But that academic work never saw the light of day: on September 26 of that year, a group of Tito's communist partisans kidnapped her and took her to the former Carabinieri barracks in Visignano, demanding she join the Popular Liberation Movement. She refused, and that refusal began the hell that led to her agonizing death: the next day they seized her again and took her away. She would never return home: seventeen torturers, communist partisans, tied her to a table, repeatedly raped her, cut off her breasts, and continued with abominable and unspeakable torture that ended only on the night between October 4th and 5th when, along with other prisoners, Norma Cossetto was forcibly taken to Villa Suriani and thrown into a sinkhole while still alive. She was only 23 years old.

As Edoardo Sylos Labini, director and founder of CulturaIdentità, says, this is a page of unprecedented violence that has remained shamefully hidden for too many years in many history books. And that's why, with CulturaIdentità and the Comitato 10 Febbraio, Norma Cossetto will be remembered on October 4th and 5th in over 200 Italian cities with a red rose at the monuments that symbolize the Great War, the foibe, and violence against women. Norma Cossetto's message is dramatically timely, Labini says, not only because of the ignominious nature of politically motivated violence against a woman: consider the recent women's demonstrations in Iran against repression and in favor of freedom, the same freedom that Norma Cossetto defended to the point of ultimate sacrifice. Violence against women must be fought every day: remember her with us with a red rose in every Italian city.

Guido Best
Source: Culture Identity – 03/10/2022