On Saturday, September 13, the 25th edition of the Casato Prime Donne Award was held in Montalcino, in the Church of Sant’Agostino. This year’s award was dedicated to Artificial Intelligence and the role it plays in today’s society.
The Casato Prime Donne Award was created in 1999 by RAI journalist Ilda Bartoloni, who redesigned the Barbi Colombini Award created 18 years earlier by Francesca Colombini. The aim of the new initiative is to choose a “Prime Donna,” a personality capable of being an example and inspiration to women on their journey towards gender equality. This is a topic close to the hearts of Donatella Cinelli Colombini and her staff, given that the Casato Prime Donne winery is the first in Italy with an entirely female workforce.
In its first 25 years, the Casato Prime Donne Award has contributed to the fame of Montalcino by promoting the best articles, radio and television reports, and photographs of the area, its people, and above all, Brunello wine.
The Prima Donna 2025 award was presented to Darya Majidi, an Italian-Iranian entrepreneur, leading national expert on the use of artificial intelligence to combat the gender gap, and pioneer of the first spin-off on the application of AI to neurology created by a woman. She was selected by LinkedIn as one of the world’s 200 top voices on artificial intelligence, the only Italian woman on the list.
Since 2024, Darya Majidi has also been president of the Italian Committee of UN Women, the United Nations agency for women’s empowerment. Her goal is to raise Italy’s current 85th place in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025, which annually measures the progress made by women on four fronts: economy, education, health, and politics. According to the International Monetary Fund, reducing gender inequality in the workplace could contribute to an 8% increase in GDP in emerging and developing economies, but there is still a long way to go.
For her exceptional contribution, La Repubblica included Darya Majidi among the 100 women who are changing the world, and in 2022, Io Donna, part of Corriere della Sera, chose her as one of the 10 women who have the greatest impact in Italy.
Dr. Majidi, according to estimates in the Global Gender Gap Report 2025, it will take 120 years to achieve gender equality.
“That seems like an enormous amount of time. Unfortunately, in many areas of the world, women, especially girls, have taken a step backward. Think of the situation of women in Afghanistan, Iran, and even in the United States, where women have had to take many steps backward, with the result that the goals cannot be achieved. Both men and women need to be aware of this and work to defend what has been achieved, using technology to speed up the achievement of equality for all.”
You are the president of the Italian Committee of UN Women. What can be done to improve the status of women in our country?
“Unfortunately, the situation of women in Italy is the result of men’s choices. This division between us and you is wrong. We must start from the assumption that there are also many decent men who want to contribute to change. I always say that in a classroom, the bully is almost always alone if the group agrees to stand up to him so that he cannot continue. But often there are people who are afraid and do not react. We must break this indifference. We must ask young people and adults that when they see chats or social media pages that are offensive to women, as has happened recently, they should not just make fun of them, but quickly and passionately say that this is violence and stop any perpetuation of this attitude.”
How much can artificial intelligence help to reduce the gap between men and women in Italy and the rest of the world from an economic, employment, and social point of view?
“A lot, because if we use artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity, for example to speed up discoveries in medicine, or to detect fraud and crime in general, AI is our ally. ”
That’s why she organized AIxGirls, a week-long tech camp in Volterra for high school seniors, which addresses not only AI knowledge and skills, but also ethical and legal aspects to make girls aware of the benefits and opportunities of these technologies.
“Reducing the gender gap is not only a matter of social justice but also a strategic lever for growth, competitiveness, and innovation, as well as an antidote to demographic decline. The camp is dedicated to girls in their fourth year of high school, and I would like to appeal to next year’s girls to participate in our initiative.
You are the first Donna 4.0 (from the title of your book ‘Donne 4.0’ ed.). This is a very delicate geostrategic moment in the world, in which women and children are paying a very high price. Will they manage to become 4.0?
“I think that the younger generations are much more aware, but this awareness must be shared by both women and men.”
A profile, therefore, that fully embraces the principles of the Casato Prime Donne Award, which includes other outstanding winners alongside her. Starting with two journalism professionals who have made a significant contribution to promoting Montalcino, its territory, and its wines, such as Lara Loreti with the “Io e Montalcino” Award for her article entitled “Brunello di Montalcino: 5 cantine da non perdere“ (Brunello di Montalcino: 5 wineries not to be missed), a fascinating account of Brunello, its places, stories, and characters published in ”Il Gusto“ in ”La Repubblica.” And Giorgio Dell’Orefice, winner of the Consorzio Brunello di Montalcino Award for the articles “Tuscany: Rosso di Montalcino production set to double” and “Welcome Brunello to Florida, Texas, and Virginia: +19% in sales” published in “Il Sole 24 Ore”; an interesting overview of the data on a production and commercial reality of excellence such as that of Montalcino wines.
