Reggio Emilia, June 5, 2026 – A story, one that always occurred in the lower Reggio area, which brings back memories of the ghosts of Novellara and the tragic fate of Saman Abbas, but which this time tells a fortunately opposite epilogue. Thanks to the newfound courage of a twenty-two-year-old Pakistani woman to rebel against her parents and the timely activation of the “Red Code” by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Reggio Emilia, a different final word could be written: not an irreparable tragedy, but a conviction.
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The girl’s parents sentenced to 2 years and 15 days
The girl’s parents were in fact sentenced in the first instance to two years and 15 days in prison for years of mistreatment and attempted inducement to forced marriage. The sentence, issued on June 3, 2026, concludes a complex investigation conducted by the Carabinieri of Boretto with the support of their colleagues from Norm di Guastalla under the constant coordination of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Reggio Emilia, directed by Prosecutor Calogero Gaetano Paci.
The daughter ‘guilty’ of having started an unapproved relationship
The protagonists, a 54-year-old man and a 51-year-old woman, both Pakistani, were held responsible for abusive conduct that began in 2017 and continued until May 2023. This is the picture that emerged from the investigations: the daughter, “guilty” of having started an unapproved romantic relationship, was deprived of her mobile phone, isolated within the family, and forced to travel to Pakistan multiple times against her will; threatened not to be allowed to return unless she accepted an engagement with a cousin, residing in Pakistan, with whom she was forced to marry remotely in 2018 and obliged to travel to Pakistan, against her will, to live with her husband.
A regime of violence and segregation
After discovering the relationship, they subjected her to a regime of systematic violence and segregation. Among the most serious episodes contested, they hit her with slaps to the face, the father made her kneel and beat her with punches to the back, making her hit her face against the floor, the mother locked her in the cellar, forcing her to spend the night there. In December 2022, after discovering her pregnancy, the young woman was hit with punches to the abdomen and previously also to the back, then forced to abort under threat of having the abortion performed in Pakistan and not being welcomed back home in the event of continuing the pregnancy.
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The parents tried to impose arranged marriages on her
In addition to physical violence, the parents allegedly repeatedly tried to impose arranged marriages on her with men of their choosing, taking away her mobile phone to isolate her from external contacts. Between January and February 2023, after offering her the possibility of returning home only if she agreed to marry, they allegedly induced her to choose a boy from those proposed to her and made a concrete marriage proposal to him, but they failed in their intent due to the boy’s refusal. In April 2023, they informed her that she would have to marry another compatriot boy, organizing a meeting between him and their daughter against her will.
The victim managed to rebel and report her parents
Despite the enormous initial difficulties and the profound fear of retaliation, the victim managed to make her first confidences to the Carabinieri of Boretto, and then opened up to the investigating Magistrate and Chief Prosecutor Paci who, during the investigations, questioned her. A courage, that found by the girl, which protected her own freedom of action.
After her statements, the restraining order was issued, in which the Judge had emphasized how the parents’ conduct was an expression of a “chauvinistic and despotic” vision, totally incompatible with the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Italian legal system. A conviction, that handed down yesterday by the Court of Reggio Emilia to the parents (who now reside in another province), which can now allow the young victim to look to the future free from the grip of family abuse.
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