News of August

We continue to collect the voices of women from the Mediterranean with the Mediterranea – Archive of Mediterranean Women project, supported by the Mediterranean Women’s Fund – Fonds pour les Femmes en Méditerranée.

In August, we bring you new stories that cross borders, choices and different experiences.

Franca Elisa takes us to Sicily in the 1980s, amid family silences and social taboos. Hers is a story of growth and conquest, from the emotional repression of childhood to the freedom of a home of her own, found in Rome.

Denise, who has been living in Turkey for twenty-five years, talks about her choice not to have children, the questions she receives – often invasive, never predictable – and the right to claim her own story.

Nacyb, activist and coordinator of the Rayhana association in Jendouba, Tunisia, recounts her transition from a “childless” woman to a recognised mother: a personal journey that reflects on and questions Tunisian society and its issues surrounding motherhood, identity and reproductive rights.

Emna, a young Tunisian woman involved with Amnesty International, reconstructs her journey of self-determination starting from a difficult family, marked by paternal violence and maternal dependence. Choosing work, independence, a home of her own – and not wanting children – are for her forms of resistance and construction. In the final part of her testimony, Emna also touches on the theme of adoption and the social taboos surrounding menstruation and non-motherhood.

In the International Live Archive Series, we present our encounter with Orna Donath, sociologist and author of the book Regretting Motherhood, translated into sixteen languages. In 2023, she met with Lunàdigas and talked about the origins of her research, her personal position, and the work she does in Israel to support women’s self-determination. Today, her focus is on a new issue: the condition of older women who had chosen not to be mothers.