“I remember his voice. I remember his words, that violent threat that will be difficult to forget ». Natalia Vacca Ferrai is 21 years old and has a lot of courage. That attack of the other night, the groping of a stranger on his way to the university canteen in via Sulcis, will not easily be forgotten. He did not want to remove her when he chose to report her bad experience as a girl, as a woman. To the carabinieri, on his Instagram page and to the press. "For this shame to help other girls, the many who are writing to me and who, victims of sexual violence, because this is what we are talking about, did not say the courage but my own strength".

History

Twenty minutes have gone by when Natalia, getting off the bus, hurries down a not perfectly lit street, crossroads of via Is Cornalias, neighborhood of Is Mirrionis, to go to dinner. Law student, born in Barisardo but resident in Tortolì, she moved to Cagliari for three years to attend the University. «I was calm, I had done double shifts at the Red Cross, where I am a volunteer, and I was still wearing the uniform. I bent down for a moment to tie the laces of a shoe, I started walking again and I felt touched, touched from behind », says the student. Then that sentence. Terrible, even more violent than the hands. «'A Red Cross nurse f….'. So he screamed, as he approached, hidden behind a mask and a hat. I just caught his eye. A moment and I ran away, or at least I tried. ' The hands of that fool, a man between 30 and 40 years old, average height, grabbed the schoolgirl's backpack to be able to hold her, grab her. “I reacted, I defended myself, I gave him a knee, I hit him in the thigh but he slapped me on the chest, a terrible blow on the breastbone. Then the backpack strap broke and I started running, without stopping. ”The university cafeteria suddenly became far away. «I was only thinking of taking refuge in my house, I needed to feel protected. But as I walked I thought and thought about what had happened to me, about that man, about his arrogance. And I no longer wanted to run away, to be silent ».

The decision

The road was now that of the carabinieri barracks. “I knocked, but I had to wait until the next morning for the complaint. At that late hour, so they told me, the station was closed. I explained why I was there, why I was in that dark street at that time of the evening. They asked me why I hadn't phoned 112 immediately », says Natalia. «I arrived at the Brotzu emergency room at 9 pm, they visited me at 7 am». A night in a chair, alone, to wait and relive the nightmare. "The x-ray ruled out injuries to the sternum, the doctors saw the marks of the slap on my chest." Then back to the barracks. To denounce the stranger.

Doubts

Speak, tell. Words and silence. «I had a lot of uncertainty in publicly denouncing what happened. But that's right. For me, for other women. The many testimonies I am receiving comfort me and convince me that what happened to me can happen again. Several girls have told me similar episodes. The description of my attacker also coincides with the descriptions of other girls. '

Andrea Piras

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