Title : Franca
Year Completed :2025
Size: 24 cm x 33 cm
Technique : oil pastels and black ink on paper

Description :
“Io non sono proprietà di nessuno. L'onore lo perde chi le fa certe cose, non chi le subisce.”
Franca Viola
A Sicilian woman, she became a symbol of female emancipation for Italian women in the post-World War II era for being the first to refuse a shotgun wedding, after being kidnapped, raped, beaten, and held captive for eight days in 1965, at just 18 years old, by the ex-boyfriend and nephew of the mafia boss, Filippo Melodia, with the complicity of his friends. Supported by her father and the police, she brought Melodia to trial, securing his conviction. Her case contributed to the abolition of honor killings and shotgun weddings in Italy in 1981.