We return to talking about arranged marriages in Muslim communities in Italy in Dritto e rovescio, in the episode of Thursday 6 June on Rete 4. The murder of Saban Abbas is an extreme case, but the phenomenon concerns many girls born in Italy. A young Islamic woman is Paolo Del Debbio’s guest and she claims to have freely married her husband. However, the story she gives of the period leading up to the wedding provokes a lively back and forth with the host. The reason is soon to be said.
The woman explains that she received a marriage proposal from her current husband: “I told him: if your intentions are good you can talk to my brother. Then my brother acted as spokesperson for my father, who asked my brother as if he were this boy, then he talked to me and my mother. I told him that I wanted to marry him and that’s how it went.” In short, a tortuous journey, then the happy ending (one doubt among many: what if the father had opposed it?).
In short, “the decision was mine”, says the woman. At that point Del Debbio intervenes, having listened to her detailed story: “But why did she have to tell her brother so that she could talk to her father? Couldn’t she have told her father directly that a boy wanted to marry her?”. The young woman is taken aback and visibly embarrassed: “Maybe I was ashamed to tell my dad, maybe I’m not used to it.” “And what shame is there?” asks Del Debbio. The question remains unanswered.
