"My husband exposed me to a disgusting group of voyeurs."

BarcelonaFor six years, Meva Moglie (My Wife, in Italian) was a public Facebook group where men posted photographs of their partners, without having given the consent, in which they appeared sleeping or on the beach. Although Meta, the social media company's owner, had long received complaints for allowing posts that violated the right to privacy, it wasn't until feminist Carolina Capria and the organization No Justice, No Pace reported it on Instagram that the page was shut down. Up to 32,000 men had shared images, some accompanied by sexualizing or degrading comments and retouched with artificial intelligence.

The case is a new episode of digital sexual violence against women and has shocked the conscience of Italian society, which is now wondering whether the attackers have already sought a new platform to continue their criminal activity against women who trust them. The police are now searching for the men who, since 2016, have been feeding the page with photographs and participating in discussions with comments in which they expressed violent sexual fantasies about the women in the images. So far, no one has been arrested, and authorities encourage women to contact the police if they recognize themselves in the photo catalog. Currently, there are more than 2,800 reports.

The photographs these sexual predators chose were of their own distracted partners, sleeping or relaxing in private. All were scantily clad or wearing underwear. "She's sleeping and I'm watching. What would you do to my wife? What would I do to her if I found her like that?" one of the participants wrote about his partner.

The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera collects the testimony of one of these women: "It was as if everything around me had collapsed. The Anonymous Participant 127, that is, my husband, had exposed me online in that group of voyeurs who made disgusting comments. And he even responded! I couldn't believe it," she says. The woman kicked her husband out of the house and, taking the Frenchwoman's motto as her own, Gisèle Pelicot that shame must change sides, reported it. "I felt betrayed," the victim emphasizes.

In fact, there are certain parallels between the Meva Moglie group and Pelicot due to the fact that many men normalize violence against women and refuse to assume the right to decide to expose themselves publicly for the sexual desire of others. Ultimately, the perpetrators of this type of violence treat the victims as objects.