A young Pakistani woman,
Menoona Safdar, who was forced against her will by family to
leave her studies and life in Italy to travel to Pakistan for an
arranged marriage is returning to Italy after asking her old
school for help, Italian Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi
said Thursday.
Moavero expressed "great satisfaction" at the outcome of the
case and said Safdar had already boarded a flight for Italy and
was travelling back.
The Italian foreign ministry said "the positive outcome,
which ended a grave violation of the fundamental rights of the
young woman, was rendered possible by the personal involvement
of the minister" and the "effective action of our embassy in
Islamabad, in close contact with the Farnesina (the foreign
ministry)".
The 23-year-old Pakistani woman had sent a letter to her old
school in the northern Italian city of Monza to ask for help,
saying she was forced to return to Pakistan by her father to
marry a man chosen by her family.
In the letter, sources said, the woman wrote that her father
didn't reveal to her the real reason why he had taken her back
to their country of origin until they had arrived.
"Please help me, my future is in Italy", the young woman
reportedly wrote, saying her documents were confiscated by
family members upon arrival.
"My father forced me to leave before I could finish my fourth
year" of high school and "I know one of the professors was
asking where I was".
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