Today, while Sapienza was in the process of reaffirming its constant action in the fight against gender-based violence by hosting an event organised together with AS Roma and the Assemblea Capitolina, at the very moment when some students and representatives were sharing their concrete experiences and actions, a handful of rioters, including students and people from outside our university, destroyed the red bench donated by AS Roma to the Sapienza community, thus contesting the installation of a symbol recognised as a commitment to the fight against gender-based violence.

"We believe that the goal of a great university like ours," says Rector Antonella Polimeni, "is to carry out concrete and symbolic actions, to build an educating community, to seek alliances and to set examples. It will be up to our community to decide whether the right example is that of those who set symbols or those who destroy them. Of those who carry out actions or those who challenge them, of those who open Centri Antiviolenza with trained professionals for their community and territory in the San Lorenzo neighbourhood, or of those who occupy spaces and take them away from the entire student community. There will be time," continued the Rector, "to understand the reasons why the symbol of the fight against gender-based violence is being violently demolished. Instead, today is the time to express our indignation at what has happened, to rebuild the bench and to strengthen our alliance with all those who wish to contribute to the creation of a widespread culture, transversal to the generations, based on respect for the person, for the individual as such. On a day like today," concluded the Rector, "when our students have declared that they no longer intend to suffer, tolerate or witness any form of violence by looking the other way, we need sisterhood and solidarity between women and between women and men.

Sapienza reaffirms its commitment to the fight against all forms of gender-based violence through concrete actions, in a confrontation that recognises differences in opinion and thinking, but does not yield to the logic or abuse of those who seek ideological clashes and opportunities for manipulation.