In Italy where there are more and more Muslim faithful, the codes of Islam are spreading, and those who do not agree pay a high price. The anonymous testimony in the previous pages is only the tip of the iceberg: the national news is tinged with dramas in which violence against women and minors has a clear origin: the shariaor the set of principles derived from Koran (the sacred text), from Sunna (i.e. sayings, acts and silences of the prophet Muhammad, the second source of Islamic law after the Koran) and by the interpretation of so-called “jurists”. On the basis of these rules, in private observance pressure is exerted on family members not to go astray. And psychological and physical punishments can be cruel.
Sometimes these behaviors that belong to other times and other places leak out. How to Triestewhere on 15 October the first hearing was held in the trial of an Afghan denounced by his partner, a 40-year-old Italian woman who converted to Islam, who spoke of threats (“I’ll kill you in your sleep”), punitive rape and more. “She went from submission to rebellion”, confirms those who know the acts which tell of “an intolerable life regime” in the name of Allah. The harassed Italian is represented by the lawyer Antonio Santorowho had initially defended her from an absurd “preventive” complaint of mistreatment presented by the Afghan. The situation was immediately reversed: the “Taliban” imposed Sharia law in the home even on minor children.
The domestic regime between physical punishments and obsessive prohibitions
The nightmare, for the converted Italian, had lasted for two and a half years. A punch in the square because he smoked during the Ramadanthe imposition of the veil and the obligation to pray even for children. Death threats and obsessive checking of your cell phone. Ban on attending parties. When the woman lost a child in 2023, the Afghan was convinced that it was a punishment from Allah. Epithets such as “devil, antichrist, beast” were directed at her and her eldest son because he was uncircumcised. The most serious episode: one day he lowered her trousers on the balcony, forcing her to suffer a sexual intercourse as punishment. The imaginary “guilt” is that she desired other men. The investigators would have an audio message from the suspect in their hands.
Stories hidden in the plot of religious fanaticism that has arrived in our territory. Between 55 and 58 thousand Italian women have embraced the faith of Muhammad (out of 106 thousand converts). And the data of Interior Ministry on complaints and arrests for “gender violence” are clear. 83% of the 48 cases registered in 2025 of “coercion and induction into marriage” involved foreigners. Since January they have been 73%. These are not just Islamic, but largely they are episodes of forced marriage Muslim. For the 231 reports of arrests relating to “permanent facial injuries” of the woman, foreign husbands or partners are in the majority, 54% last year and 55% in 2026. Even in this case they will not all be Islamic, but “the incidence of non-EU citizens from areas such as the Maghreb is high” explains a Panorama source.
The voice of the victims between television denunciations and years of submission
In fact, the husband of another woman is Moroccan, Antonellawho told his case on the Mediaset program last month Forehand and backhand. Here too, abuse and submission. «I was a servant. For them these are women. You can’t emancipate yourself” he said in front of the cameras. “His anger became ferocious when I didn’t wear the veil,” she recalled. “He beat me to the death and I ended up in a coma.” The most disturbing aspect is that the husband, at the beginning, appeared perfectly integrated, not a Taliban, “but then he threw away the mask”.
A week earlier, in the studios of Out of the boxanother Rete 4 programme, Dyha, an Algerian woman living in Italy, described the violence she suffered in the name of sharia. “I refused the sexual approach and for this reason I was tied to the bed, as the Koran says” she revealed, “then raped and beaten”.
A year earlier, Amiraa Pakistani resident in Ferrara, denounced the 12 years of Islamic marriage she lived like a slave. «It was a prison. I was treated like an inferior being and if I did something wrong I was punished or threatened with death.” She decided to break the chains when her husband wanted to marry off his 12-year-old daughter to an elderly man.
The network of arranged marriages and escapes to save one’s life
The association Plot of Landsfrom Imola, published a recent report on Emilia Romagna, the “homeland” of hospitality. In 2025, as many as 58 women, between 18 and 55 years old and even a minor, who arrived as migrants, turned to local authorities for a forced marriage or an attempt to force the marriage. Actionaid he reports that in Italy this risk “concerns around 2 thousand girls and boys every year, the majority of whom come from communities originating from Bangladesh, Mali, Somalia, Nigeria, India, Egypt and Pakistan”. And of origin it was Saman Abbasthe 18-year-old from Novellara (Reggio Emilia) who was killed by her family in 2021 because she refused to accept a forced marriage.
One of the latest cases – again in Trieste – occurred on 2 September, when a young girl of Bangladeshi origin ran away from home with her little sister and asked the police for help. “Mum and dad force me to get married to a man” she tells the officers in fear. “They want to take me to Bangladesh and if I refuse they will kill me.” Now the father, known as a radical who frequents the mosque, is a child house arrest for the crime of “forced marriage”.
In his book Enough is enough, immigration, Islamization, submission, the MEP of the League Anna Maria Cisint describes some stories known in the area where she was mayor, Monfalcone, where foreigners make up 32.4% of the population with the majority coming from Bangladesh. Among these, also the rebellion against forced marriages. One of the girls mentioned then wrote an open letter. «I lived my adolescence in the cage of my house, relegated to the four walls of my room and do you know why? Because for my family a Muslim cannot choose her partner and I had fallen in love with a boy of the Christian faith.” For her parents «a heresy, a sin and for this reason they locked me in a dark room: the only face I saw was that of my brother, who brought me food in silence. I didn’t know how long that prison would last. For this reason, not seeing any escape route and realizing that I would never be able to experience the same freedom as girls like me, but not Islamic… I tried to take my own life.” The young woman ingests some bleach, but thus «my second life begins. First the hospital, then the community and now I am free.”
The plague of forced marriages does not depend only on Islam, but also on the traditions of some communities that do not integrate, such as the Bangladeshis and Pakistanis. The nikahconsenting Islamic marriages, are advertised online, in Italian, complete with practical advice and references to the harsh and pure law of the Koran. «Many Muslim couples choose to first do the nikah (to live together halal) and then register the marriage civilly» we read on the Internet. «This double procedure is perfectly legal and respects both sharia and Italian law». And again: «After the nikah you are married before Allah, but not before the Italian State. For civil rights – inheritance, survivor’s pension, health care – marriage in the municipality is needed.”
The legal knot of the arbitration courts and the boundaries of Italian law
On March 3rd, the company was established in Padua “Italian Islamic Arbitration Chamber”. The animator is the lawyer Omar Vaninwho also teaches at university. The case broke out between September and October with a complaint to the Prosecutor’s Office by a member of Futuro Nazionale. No one has activated Islamic arbitration yet, but reading the site online to make a request is enlightening. «Your path to Islamic Justice in Italy» is the first title that catches the eye. The Arbitration Chamber resolves “civil and commercial disputes in accordance with sharia principles”. And again: «For people of the Muslim faith, choosing sharia arbitration offers net benefits that align conflict resolution with religious and community imperatives». Vanin, following the controversy, speaks of “Islamophobic prejudices” and specifies that it is not a court. The lawyer claims that the Arbitration Chamber «does not exercise a form of “alternative justice”» and acts «always and in any case in compliance with Italian law». However, the Muslims of Padua themselves and theUnion of Islamic communities of Italy they distance themselves.
The site lists the Islamic Arbitration Centers in Europe, such as the one discussed Islamic Sharia Council in the United Kingdom. And we read that “for people of the Muslim faith, choosing sharia arbitration offers net benefits that align conflict resolution with religious and community imperatives.” But there is more: it is said that arbitral decisions, in the name of the Koran, have «the same effectiveness as a sentence of the Italian judges».
