After 20 years of intense political and social debate, Italy amended its antiquated rape laws three years ago, toughening the punishment for sexual assault and reclassifying it from a moral offense to a criminal felony. That long-awaited change was widely viewed not just as a feminist victory, but also as a sign that Italian society had overcome old biases and deeply entrenched cultural taboos.
Then came the ''denim defense,'' or what Italian lawmakers are calling the ''jeans alibi'' -- a court ruling that suggested that a woman cannot be raped if she is wearing jeans because, the ruling contended, they are impossible to remove unless she helps. That decision -- and the country's reaction to it -- has reopened an angry debate about rape and about how judges view sexual assault.
A group of female lawmakers are on an open-ended ''jeans strike.'' They say they will wear jeans to Parliament until the decision is changed. In a kind of media deja vu, Italian newspapers, television and radio talk shows are holding impassioned discussions on a subject that many believed was resolved years ago.
The issue moved into the public spotlight last week, when the third division of the Supreme Court of Appeals in Rome released the text of a November ruling that overturned a 34-month sentence for rape in southern Italy. Among other things, the court stated that ''jeans cannot be removed easily and certainly it is impossible to pull them off if the victim is fighting against her attacker with all her force.''
That was but one of several arguments that led the court to order a new trial for the defendant. But the point about jeans set off an explosive reaction. Alessandra Mussolini, a conservative member of Parliament and the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, along with female lawmakers from other political parties, donned jeans and held a protest inside Parliament.
The court ruling continues to dominate public discussion, and mockery. In Rome and in Naples over the weekend, shop owners began waggishly marketing ''anti-rape jeans'' as St. Valentine's Day gifts.
In the case on which the court ruled, an 18-year-old woman brought an accusation of rape in 1992 against her 45-year-old driving instructor in the small town of Muro Lucano, 60 miles from Naples. She said that during a driving lesson, he drove her to an isolated spot, forced her to get out, and raped her. He contended that they had consensual sex in the car.
He was tried and convicted of a lesser charge, indecent exposure in a public place. She appealed, and he was convicted on all charges. But the appeals court threw out that conviction and ordered a new trial, which has yet to be scheduled.
Ms. Mussolini helped draft the 1996 law that replaced ones written in the fascist era in the 1930's, under her grandfather's rule, which viewed rape as a ''crime of honor'' against the victim's family. Among other things, under the old laws a defendant could avoid punishment by agreeing to marry the victim or proving that she had many other sexual experiences.
Ms. Mussolini said she was ''outraged'' by the recent ruling. ''That decision seemed like it came from 50 years ago,'' she said. ''The judges obviously have no sensitivity to the psychology of rape -- no understanding of how victims think or how real life works.''
Politicians of all parties and virtually all of Italy's columnists and television commentators have echoed her indignation.
Aldo Rizzo, who wrote the ruling and is one of the five judges who made it, said he was shocked by the reaction, which he said misunderstood the court's intent. ''Of course, saying that a woman can't be raped if she wears jeans is stupid, it's ridiculous, it's cretinous,'' Judge Rizzo said angrily. ''That's not what our ruling meant. We merely found that the appeals court had not provided sufficient evidence to uphold the sentence. There were holes in their argument and it was our duty to point out the inconsistencies.''
One inconsistency the judges noted was the fact that the afternoon of the rape, the victim returned to the driving school for a driving theory lesson. But there were other arguments raised by the court that proved just as inflammatory as the one about jeans.
The court said, ''It should be noted that it is instinctive, especially for a young woman, to oppose with all her strength the person who wants to rape her. And it is illogical to say that a young woman would passively submit to a rape, which is a grave violence, for fear of undergoing other hypothetical and no more serious offenses to her physical safety.''
That reasoning, which infuriated most Italians, did not surprise Simonetta Sotjiu. She is one of 10 female judges who serve on the Supreme Court, which is dominated by its 410 male judges.
''The law is solidly in the hands of men,'' she told the newspaper La Repubblica. ''Many of them think in a way that is completely detached from reality.''
Ruling on Tight Jeans and Rape Sets Off Anger in Italy - The New York Times
now what do you have to say.....you know i believe in a prison you don't have "religious" boys of the society unless it is supposedly guantanamo bay....but other than that...prison is messed up...and rape happens everywhere in the world....she wore a "burqa" to avoid rape i guess she needs to tell the italian government something
