From Rimini to Bologna by rickshaw: like the Tour, but for women’s rights

The pedal caravan will travel along the Via Emilia from tomorrow to Sunday: "A pop campaign, because equality is not a living room topic"

BOLOGNA – From Romagna to Emilia on pedals, as the Tour de France riders will do in just over a month: but in this case on a very flashy fuchsia rickshaw. Indeed a rickshaw, female, because the aim of the initiative is to draw attention to gender inequalities and raise awareness among the people who will meet the caravan along the 135 kilometers of the route from Rimini to Bologna. We leave tomorrow and arrive on Sunday passing through Cesena, Forlì, Imola and San Lazzaro. Here is the campaign “La Rickshaw – Equality is pedaled”, promoted by Salvaiciclisti Bologna in collaboration with Period Think Tank, merging feminist cycling activism.

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“LET’S BRING OUR VOICE TO THE SQUARES: IT WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE DON’T HEAR US”

The campaign was launched last January 6th (the feast of the Befana and therefore of a “free, rebellious and renewing witch”) and then went out on the road on the weekend of March 8th in Bologna. Now take the Via Emilia: the fuchsia rickshaw, followed by a group of cycle activists, will stop in the various cities involved taking part in the initiatives gradually proposed in the territories. The commitment to equality and rights “is a reality that affects very few professionals and therefore we said: we want to be visible, we want to bring our voice publicly in the streets and squares where it is impossible not to hear us”, he declares Elena Zaccherini of Salvaiciclisti at the press conference: the objective is “to bring very complex issues close to people and we intended to do it in the natural way, therefore by pedaling”. The rickshaw campaign “brings together the many threads of the work that is done both at an institutional level and with associations – and it is nice to see that these alliances also materialize on the street and on the pedals”, says Teresa Carlone of Period Think Tank.

“THE rickshaw? SLOW AND TIRING, LIKE THE CONQUEST OF EQUALITY”

The rickshaw, therefore, is a metaphor: “It’s one thing to be equipped at birth with a fast, functional and comfortable car to go from Rimini and Bologna and it’s another thing to have to do it with a slower and more tiring means, because the the achievements of equality are truly like this”, declares Simona Lembi, head of the Equality Plan of the Metropolitan City of Bologna. This is how the idea of a “pop” initiative was born, adds Lembi: because “equality is not a sitting room issue, but one that has to do with people’s daily lives and that everyone they touch with their hands”.

THE OBJECTIVE: TO REACH THOSE WHO WOULD NEVER ATTEND A SEMINAR

This campaign, “crossing civil society and covering the entire region – states the deputy mayor with responsibility for equal opportunities, Emily Clancy – wants to address this issue with everyone. Not a debate that concerns only women or only workers at work but rather a normal topic of conversation, even in a colorful and festive way, populating places of association, entertainment and culture”. The idea of pedaling a rickshaw, “precisely because it is a more cumbersome means of transport, gives a good idea of what women’s lives are like”, says Francesca Mattei, councilor for peace policies of the Municipality of Rimini, adding that “gender equality can only be achieved collectively”. Francesca Lucchi, Councilor for Sustainable Mobility of the Municipality of Cesena, underlines how sport is “a strong vehicle of civic sense and community, so linking it to the issues of equality and rights I believe is truly a crucial aspect”. Given the “need for a cultural change which is fundamental to bring equality into everyday life – remarks Elisa Spada, councilor for gender policies in Imola – it is important to find new ways of communicating to reach those who perhaps would not come to a seminar”.< /p>