International Women's Day, the banner that is causing a stir in Modica

A white writing on a bordeaux background, stretched by the wind over the panoramic view of the Quartiere d’Oriente, just a few days before the International Women’s Day. “My sisters defend me.. not the cops.. towards March 8.” A few clear words that have transformed one of the most scenic viewpoints in Modica into a symbolic battleground.

The installation, attributable to fringes of radical feminism or to antagonistic circuits, proposes an extreme thesis: sisterhood as the only authentic protection against gender-based violence. The use of the term “cops”, with an evident derogatory connotation to refer to law enforcement, highlights a deep fracture between a part of the feminist movement and the State.

The message, in its succinctness, rejects the delegation of one’s safety to institutions — perceived, perhaps, as an expression of that “patriarchal” system to be dismantled — and claims a mutual assistance among women.

This episode fits into a national climate already marked by tensions on the issues of femicide and domestic violence. While politics and associations urge for a strengthening of legal protections and a greater presence of law enforcement, the written message from Quartiere d’Oriente expresses a radical distrust.

This is not the first time Modica questions the role of institutions — just recall the recent controversies over police presences in sensitive areas — but this banner shifts the focus to the ground of collective self-defense and an explicit political separatism.

In the city, the reaction was immediate.

- Some condemn the language: numerous citizens and institutional representatives consider the use of “cops” a gratuitous insult to those who, every day, protect public safety.

- Some interpret the discomfort: some activists read in the sign the reflection of a generational anger, fueled by the perception of slow or inadequate laws.

Beyond the positions, the banner has hit a target: it has cracked the ceremonial. On a date often reduced to mimosa and formal phrases, that writing reminds us that for many women March 8 is not a celebration, but a moment of struggle and a radical questioning of the established order.

It remains to be seen whether this "cry" will translate into a constructive dialogue or if it will remain just a provocation destined to be removed, returning to that viewpoint the silence of a panorama that, today, seems to scrutinize the city with a more severe gaze.