It is indeed a very strange decision that has recently been taken by the Italian Court of Cassation. The most senior transalpine magistrates confirmed the acquitting of a Muslim teenage girl’s parents and brother, who had beaten and sequestrated her, in order to put an end to her behaviour, considered as too _westernised’. According to the judges, the girl wasn’t treated this way _out of vexation or despise’, but _for her own good’. Confirming a decision taken by the Court of Appeal, the judges ruled that Fatima shouldn’t have had _a lifestyle not conform to their culture’. Confirmant une d_cision de la cour d’appel, les juges ont estim_ que Fatima avait eu tort d’avoir ” un style de vie non conforme _ leur culture “. In a country were at least nine Muslim women have died due to familial brutality, the silence of most politicians on this issue is hardly tolerable.
