There was a time when the deprivation of freedom of choice also involved feelings . Because in those days, which we assure you are not even that far away, when you chose a husband you did it forever. Betrayals, disrespect, quarrels and violence: once married, regardless of the ending of that relationship, there was no turning back .
And today
How we arrived at the time when a Linda Wolfe holds the record with 23 marriages behind her
In between there have been many battles that have relied on mass culture to try to tear down those walls, too large and thick, relating to the conservative and archaic ideals that have belonged to that Italy too long imprisoned by Catholicism, before, and by fascism, then.
Today, however, we are no longer together out of duty, but out of love. And, indeed, from 2015 you can say goodbye to your spouse even in just six months thanks to the shortened procedure.
The possibility of choosing the epilogue of our married life today seems a foregone conclusion, but it has not always been this way. Nor are the days when the Christian Democrats stirred up crowds to protest the divorce law of 1970.
But now it was decided. Thus, after a long and exhausting parliamentary session that lasted a whole day, on 1 December 1970 the legislation was approved. The values ​​of the traditional family, the one between man and woman who must be together and procreate until death, had been unhinged.
That 1 December 1970 is in reality only the conclusion of a very long process that had lasted for more than a century. The possibility of divorce was already talked about in the nineteenth century, but with the influence of the church and the fascist dictatorship, the implementation of legislation linked to the end of a marriage was increasingly distant.
Then, thanks to the unification of the two texts on the dissolution of marriage proposed first by the socialist Loris Fortuna, and then by the liberal Antonio Baslini , the new legislation was approved. It did not take long for the first divorce proceedings to be initiated, not without angering supporters of the traditional family.
Thus, here is an abrogative referendum proposed, wanted and demanded by DC and MSI in 1974. The no was won and, in the following years, there was the reform of family law, then the law on abortion and the repeal of the crime of honor. Italy was already projected towards a future made up of civil rights and personal freedoms .
After a little more than half a century, we can say that 1 December was the day that I changed our country and that I freed it from the archaic, patriarchal and obsolete ideals that passed for values, considered traditional, which have not yet been completely buried. There are those who today put forward proposals upon proposals to make the dissolution of marriage impossible, to drastically reduce the practice of abortion and to trap women in a condition of economic dependence on their spouses.
Fifty-one years ago Italy changed, but what should have been only the first step on a path towards a revolution has come to a halt and, worse, it seems to be turning back. This is why it is important to remember, so that you look to the past to never make the same mistakes again.
