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Franca Viola (born in Alcamo in 1947) is a Sicilian woman who became famous in the 1960s in Italy for refusing a "rehabilitating marriage" ("''matrimonio riparatore''" in Italian) with her victimizer after suffering kidnapping and rape. Instead, she and her family successfully appealed to the law to prosecute the rapist. The trial had a wide resonance in Italy, as Viola's behavior clashed with the traditional social conventions, whereby a woman would lose her honour if she did not marry the man she lost her virginity to. Franca Viola thus became a symbol of the cultural progress and the emancipation of women in post-war Italy.〔(Rifiuto il matrimonio dopo lo stupro ) (in Italian)〕〔Marta Boneschi, ''Di testa loro''. Essay on ten women that changed the Italian culture in the 20th century ((), in italian)〕〔(Guido Craniz, ''Storia del miracolo italiano'', p. 182. See )〕 ==Kidnapping and rape== Franca Viola was the eldest daughter of a farmer and a housewife and was born in the rural town of Alcamo, Sicily. She grew up a beautiful girl but could not attend high school because her family could not afford to pay for tuition and wished to get married for love with a respectable young man and have children of her own. In 1963, Franca, aged 15, get engaged with Filippo Melodia (aged 23), a wealthy but turbulent young man; however, shortly after Melodia was arrested for theft and police revealed he had close relations with a local mafia family. At this point, Viola broke up with him, supported by her parents and decided she did not want to see him anymore. Once released from prison, Melodia started again courting her without success and bothered both Viola and her parents, and threatening her father with a gun, by shouting: "''Chista è chidda che scaccerà la testa a vossia''" ("''This () is the one that will shoot you in the head''"). In the early hours of December 26, 1965, Melodia broke into Viola's house, along with a dozen criminal blows, beat Viola's mother who was desperately trying to save her daughter and kidnapped Franca and her little brother, Mariano, aged 8, who was released some house later because he was panicking.〔 Young Franca was repeatedly raped and segregated for 8 days into Melodia's sister and brother-in-law house, in the centre of Alcamo. Melodia threatened Viola, telling her that now she would be forced to marry him so as not to become a "''dishonored''" woman, but Viola replied that she had no intention of marriage and, moreover, that she would have him sued for kidnapping and rape. Viola's father initially tried to commit suicide, because he feared his daughter had already been murdered by Melodia, but was dissuaded and contacted the Carabinieri police to save his daughter. He pretended to come to terms with the kidnappers for his daughter's marriage with Melodia, while actually collaborating with the Carabinieri police in preparing a successful dragnet operation. Viola was thus released and her kidnappers arrested on January 2, 1966, five days before her nineteenth birthday. She said her father asked her if she really wanted to marry Melodia and, when she said she did not want it, he replied she was acting right and he would do everything possible to help her.〔(La fuitina e il disonore: storia di Franca Viola ) (in Italian)〕〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Franca Viola」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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