Italian PM pledges respect for women

Rome, Sep 17 (IANS/AKI) Premier Giuseppe Conte on Monday vowed to ensure women receive respect in Italy after a security guard killed his poetess wife and then committed suicide because she wanted to end their marriage.

"Angela Ferrara won't write any more stories for children or poems," Conte wrote on Facebook after the 30-year-old woman was shot dead Saturday outside her son's primary school in the town of Cersosimo in the southern Basilicata region.

"The little boy had just gone into school - the place that teaches dialogue and nurtures culture. He could not have imagined that he would never hug his parents again," Conte went on.

"Schools should foster individual growth and cultural development. They are places to exchange ideas and learn values including respect for others, places to build a better country - where women are respected," he wrote.

"I intend to work for this goal - as a man and as Italy's Prime Minister," Conte's post said.

A total of 44 women were murdered in Italy between January and June this year by their partners or ex-partners - a 30 percent increase on the same period of 2017, according to the Sos Stalking association.

--IANS/AKI

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