Thousands of Italians have attended the funeral of a 22-year-old student, whose murder by her ex-boyfriend has sparked a national outcry over the persistence of machismo, and calls for strengthening women’s rights.

The killing of Giulia Cecchettin, murdered just days before her graduation from the University of Padova, has galvanised Italy, prompting tens of thousands of people to protest against violence against women last month.

The furore over her death has also proven an awkward test for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has expressed anguish at the murder, but has been criticised by feminists for her right-wing government’s feeble policy response.

“[Meloni] has to deal with her voters and her stakeholders are mainly old men, the ones that if you talk about patriarchy, answer that ‘patriarchy doesn’t exist’,” said Azzurra Rinaldi, a gender economist at Rome’s Unitelma Sapienza University. “She just can’t show that she is on the woman’s side.”

Cecchettin, who had studied biomedical engineering, is one of 58 women killed by an intimate partner or ex-partner between January and Dec 5, according to interior ministry statistics. It was the details of her case — her youth, her socio-economic status — that have gripped Italians like few others.

She disappeared after meeting her ex, fellow student Filippo Turetta, on November 11 at a shopping centre near her home on the outskirts of Padova. After an intensive search operation, police finally found her body, stabbed repeatedly, in a wooded area on Nov 18.

Turetta was captured the next day in Germany and has since confessed to the murder, his lawyer confirmed.

During the funeral on Tuesday, which was broadcast on Italy’s main state television channel, Gino Cecchettin, the victim’s father, appealed to other Italian men to be “agents of change against gender violence”. He also urged politicians to drop their “ideological differences” so as to confront the underlying cultural attitudes that fuel such crimes.

“Femicide is often the result of a culture that devalues the life of women, [who are] victims of those who should have loved them,” he said. “My Giulia was cruelly taken away from us, but her death can and indeed must be a turning point to put an end to the terrible plague of violence against women.”

Emiliana De Blasio, a sociologist at Luiss University in Rome, said the case had captured public attention because Cecchettin embodied the ideal contemporary young woman.

“Giulia was ‘one of us’ — she was young, brilliant . . . educated, getting a degree,” she said. “She was the daughter that everyone wants, the neighbour that everyone wants, the friend that everyone wants.”

Cecchettin’s older sister Elena also struck a chord in a television interview after the body was discovered, in which she asserted that the murderer was the product of a patriarchal culture that privileges men and objectifies women.

“Many people said Turetta is a monster and he is sick, but he is not,” the sister said. “A monster is an exception in society . . . but he is a healthy son of our patriarchal society, which is permeated by rape culture . . . a whole set of actions aimed at reducing women’s freedom.”

Meloni, who is Italy’s first female premier, has expressed dismay at the killing and insisted that her government is committed to eradicating such “barbarism” with stronger preventive measures and public awareness campaigns about the importance of respecting women. 

“Every single woman killed because she is ‘guilty’ of being free is an aberration that cannot be tolerated,” Meloni wrote on the social media platform X after the body was discovered.

Parliament last month unanimously approved a law that expands state protection for women seen at risk of violence. Meloni has also promised a new campaign with influencers to raise awareness about femicides, and to promote a women’s hotline. 

But feminists said such superficial initiatives will do little to tackle a problem that they see as rooted in deeply-held cultural attitudes towards women.

Meloni’s government has promised to start offering emotional and relationship education for high school students, but critics note that the planned programme will be voluntary, held after school hours.  

Alessia Dulbecco, author of the book It’s always been done this way on gender education, said making Italian women safer would require changes in the mindset of law enforcement officers and court officials.

“It’s a cultural problem,” said Dulbecco. “If a girl goes to the police station and says that my man is hurting me, they say, ‘but what have you done to provoke him?’”

Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi