October 30, 2013
By Anna Assumma
An Italian girl like many others. But she converts to Islam and decides to veil herself from head to foot. Hers is a choice that disturbs everyone: except her.
She’s a girl like any other, or perhaps she was a little brighter than others. She studied humanistic scientific studies before this, getting good grades and dreaming of dedicating her life after graduation to biotechnology, looking for new drugs to eradicate deadly degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Until a few years ago she always wore jeans. Sure, the pants were always accompanied with a tunic just above the knee and a headscarf. And then what? “Then there was the devotion to a new science,” she says smiling, Because she, Fatima – Giulia, smiles a lot.
Here is where our story begins. My interview began with a sinking heart. Seeing her completely covered in layers of black fabric (the white was only for marriage), no mouth, nose, eyes, hands only – which were gloved – her voice like a bearer of sunlight. Her gaze was clear, and even more with the youthful liveliness that makes its way from under the blanket that obscures her person.
