LAURA ROVERI

“WOMAN COURAGE” Award

Sixteen stab wounds. Sixteen slashes in the neck, shoulders and head. Sixteen blows that, to Laura Roveri, in that spring evening of 2014, tore not only the flesh, but also the life. An ex-boyfriend unable to accept the end of a relationship, threats and stalking, a premeditated act of violence, and the disappointment of a judicial system that supports an unequal duel: all pieces of a script that, too often, in the Italian chronicle, it is proposed again equal to itself, in all its ferocity.

Laura's voice is that of a survivor. A voice that, from being weak, has returned to being vigorous to bear witness and fight what is, first of all, a cultural apathy. Her soul, wounded and distraught, did not allow itself to be annihilated: she rediscovered herself strong and capable of undertaking a real social battle in the name of change, prevention and respect education.

A battle that passes from an intense activity in schools, from the creation of a short film on gender-based violence and from the creation of "Stop the violence", the first app in the world that will allow you to request and receive, anonymously, legal or psychological.

A battle of progress and civilization that Laura, as a true "Woman of Courage" is committed to winning. In the firm belief that the salt of the earth is born from the courage of women.

Text by Elettra Fiorini