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"But I wish this era was over" comments Miriam Mafai, invited by Mario Fortunato at the Ratti Lectures, to discuss the issue of control over women's bodies. Starting from the assumption that the principle of habeas corpus "historically applies to everyone except women", Mafai traces a path that goes from the consideration of the female body in revealed religions, and rapes considered as spoils of war to the very ancient practice to establish a legal affiliation for women, whether to their father, husband, brother or even a "curator of the womb". All forms of control, according to anthropologists, can be traced not only to the woman's body itself, but also, and above all, to her reproductive capacity. Mafai therefore critically analyzes the achievements of the twentieth century and the result of a fertile encounter between radical movements and feminist struggles: from the possibility of access to the judiciary, the birth control pill, and the law on abortion. The conclusion, however, can only be bitter: far from being resolved, the question of control over women's bodies is reflected in the issue of the Eluana Englaro case, which was a recent event at the time, involving every phase of the life cycle, including its end.

Miriam Mafai (Florence 1926 - Rome 2012), was an Italian journalist, writer, and politician. Politically engaged since a very young age, she participated in the anti-fascist resistance in Rome and after the war, she joined the Italian Communist Party. Only in 1994, after joining the Democratic Alliance party, she was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. Mafai was an important figure in Italian journalism in the second half of the twentieth century: in the 1950s she was correspondent for the weekly magazine Vie nuove in Paris, then for L'Unità, between the 1960s and 1970s she was director of Noi donne and then a correspondent for Paese Sera. She contributed to the birth of La Repubblica in 1976 and became its editorialist. From 1983 to 1986, she was the president of the National Federation of the Italian Press. As a militant feminist and careful observer of the condition of women, she was the editor of the volume Le donne italiane. Il chi è del '900 (1993) and the author of important essays such as L'apprendistato della politica. Le donne italiane nel dopoguerra (1979); Pane Nero. Donne e vita quotidiana nella seconda guerra mondiale (1987); Il lungo freddo. Storia di Bruno Pontecorvo, lo scienziato che scelse l’USSR (1992); Botteghe Oscure addio. Com'eravamo comunisti (1996); Dimenticare Berlinguer (1996); Il sorpasso. Gli straordinari anni del miracolo economico 1958-1963 (1997); Il silenzio dei comunisti (2002).

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