Family
killing of Pakistani woman sparks integration debate in Italy
ROME
- The killing in Italy of a young Pakistani woman by her own
family has shocked Italians and prompted a discussion about
integration, just as the government pushes through legislation
making it easier for immigrants to obtain citizenship.
The
stabbed body of 21-year-old Hina Saleem, whose boyfriend - a
33-year-old divorced and re-married Italian - raised the alarm
to police about her disappearance, was discovered on Saturday
buried in the garden of the family home at Sarezzo, near the
north-eastern city of Brescia.
The
killing was “a kind of punishment inflicted by her father
because she did not respect the rules of their ethnicity and
culture,” Brescia prosecutor Giancarlo Tarquini said at a news
conference.
The
father and brother-in-law of the young woman were charged with
murder and concealing the body, while a third male family member
was still being hunted by police on Wednesday.
Investigators
are trying to determine whether the murder was premeditated, a
hypothesis supported by the fact that the women and children of
the family appeared to have been removed from the house before
the murder.
The
father told police that he killed his daughter because he did
not want her to “become like the others.”
He
has remained silent since then and his lawyer has described him
as an extremely pious man “who respected the Koran to the
letter”.
“Hina
was very beautiful. She used to wear mini-skirts or show her
belly button like all girls of her age, and she spoke Italian
very well,” a woman living next door to the flat the young
woman shared with her boyfriend told news agency ANSA.
A
spokesman for the Brescia Pakistani community, Mohammed Tofi,
condemned the murder and added that a similar tragedy “could
also happen in Italian families.”
But
right-wing lawmaker Ignazio La Russa, head of the National
Alliance, said: “A tragedy like this makes clear that the road
to integration is long.”
Earlier
this month Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s centre-left
government approved a bill which will clear the way for almost
one million regularised immigrants to become Italian citizens.
The
bill reduces from 10 years to five the requisite residency
period after which an immigrant with temporary residence papers
can attain full citizenship.
“It
is clear that to get citizenship, one should fully adhere to the
values of the constitution and to fundamental rights such as
that of women to choose their own lives,” Interior Minister
Giuliano Amato said on Tuesday.
“Hina
Saleem is the symbol for a new feminism through her desire for
liberty, her courage and her sacrifice,” said Katia Belillo, a
communist member of parliament.
Up
to three million of Italy’s 60 million inhabitants are
foreigners, according to estimates, giving a much-needed boost
to Italy’s ageing and shrinking workforce in recent years.
AFP
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