Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/author/clara-park/)
Two bills regarding the Islamic veil pending in the Italian parliament are a symbol of the country’s increasing focus on the assimilation of immigrants. Stories of fundamentalism are spurring public debate over the condition of Muslim women.
Women’s issues and reproductive rights are a wild card in the April 9 elections in Italy, where discontent over government moves to limit abortion and civil unions smoldered until a journalist’s e-mail ignited public demonstrations.
Pilgrims have been flocking to Rome for the papal transition. But for over a year Italy has been seeing another pilgrimage; that of women leaving the country to find fertility treatments. Now the country faces June referendums on the matter.
The abduction, and now wounding by U.S. forces, of Giuliana Sgrena, a foreign correspondent at the Italian daily Il Manifesto and specialist on issues for Arab women, has roused public opinion around the world.