Politicians, TV personalities and a church newspaper joined in a chorus of outrage yesterday following this week's Supreme Court acquittal of an alleged rapist based on a ruling that a woman who had been wearing jeans could not possibly have been raped because "it is common knowledge that jeans cannot be even partly removed without the active collaboration of the wearer".
While politicians and public figures rushed to condemn the judgment, one of the most authoritative voices of protest came from L'Avennire, the Italian bishops' daily, which commented: "This seems like a judgement from a time long past when women were afraid to report a rape because of the shame and because of their fear that they might not be believed. . . The Supreme Court's judgement catapults us back 50 years."
The alleged rape happened in July 1992 near the southern Italian city of Potenza. The then 18-yearold Rosa alleges that her driving instructor, C.C., took over at the wheel of the driving school car after a lesson and drove her out into the countryside, saying that he had to pick up a client who lived outside town. The driving instructor drove the car up a lonely country lane, stopped it and then pulled the girl out of the car, tearing at her clothes and raping her, according to her testimony.
When the case first came to court in Potenza in February 1996, the driving instructor was acquitted on grounds of "insubstantial evidence". A subsequent Appeals Court ruling in March 1998 overturned that judgement, giving the man a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence. This week's third level of judgement has, in turn, overruled the Appeals Court verdict.
"We can't wear either jeans or a skirt, there's nothing left for us but to wear a long evening dress, if we are not going to be considered consenting in a rape attack", a Democratic Left deputy, Ms Gloria Buffo, commented bitterly.
A TV presenter, Cristina Parodi, announced a "jeans protest" saying that she intended to present last night's edition of her current affairs programme, Verissimo, wearing jeans. She said: "No rapist has ever been stopped by a pair of jeans."