Franca Viola

Who is Franca Viola?

Franca Viola is a Sicilian woman who became famous in the 1960s in Italy for refusing a "rehabilitating marriage" after suffering kidnapping and rape. Instead, she and her family successfully appealed to the law to prosecute the rapists. 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.