What is the face of the perfect prisoner? The one we feel reassured to see, that years of stereotypical storytelling paint us as acceptable to recognise a hostage. Bruised, malnourished, beaten, traumatised. Grateful. Even a little guilty. It is certainly not the face of a smiling girl, apparently in normal physical shape, who wears a light green jilbab saying she wears it voluntarily.
The arrival in Italy of Silvia Romano, a 25-year-old cooperator who was kidnapped in Kenya 18 months ago while working for an NGO, has unleashed yet another theatre of paternalism and prejudice to which we, as women, are all too accustomed.
There are those who cry outrage, those who propose arresting her for “conspiracy to commit terrorism”, those who decide that she is a dangerous fundamentalist, those who even call her “ungrateful”. Because Silvia, already blamed for being kidnapped and for costing our institutions so much time and money, in order to show her gratitude must necessarily wear the mask of the perfect prisoner so that the average person sinking into his armchair at dinnertime can welcome poor “little red riding hood” with open arms and forgive her for her “selflessness”.
On the other hand, Silvia's sad affair has been the subject of more or less veiled criticism from the outset, but with a nasty patriarchal odour. We are not only talking about the petty and ignorant average Salvini voter, who, although not justifiable, he heaps a whole series of characteristics on himself that make him the prime suspect in a trial for misogyny and racism. This is also about citizens above suspicion, about those who, by filling their mouths with polite and sophisticated words, have revealed a vicious, albeit disguised, paternalism towards the young woman. In his article of 22 November 2018 for the Corriere della Sera, Massimo Gramellini, with the morose tones that belong to him, addresses the “poor, puny, docile and enthusiastic Silvia” as if he were talking about a young girl eager for altruism, inexperienced and therefore forgivable, treating her work and commitment in the humanitarian sphere as a whim dictated by youth.
And still today, after 536 days of captivity, the media attention is not focused on the girl's state of health, on what happened to her first in Kenya and then in Somalia, on the joy of two parents who were finally able to re-embrace a daughter after so much pain. What is important today is not that a free girl has set foot in Italy again, who has always been free since she decided to leave for her trip to Africa, but that this girl is dressed like the “Islamic cutthroats”, that she may be pregnant, that she is laughing. And even when she herself declares that she has voluntarily converted to Islam, we decide that she must be brainwashed, that she has been coerced, we again speak for her, we again trample on her self-determination. We call her “Little Red Riding Hood” again, belittling her once more.
It is still too early to know what really happened to Silvia, or Aisha as she chose to call herself, in her 18 months of captivity. Perhaps we will never know, if she decides to preserve her story and not feed it to those who will then tell her once again what a woman should or should not do. One thing is certain, however: we have wasted another good opportunity to keep quiet.
Below is a roundup of enlightened newspaper excerpts and comments on social media, put together from the Express.
Prepare the Maalox...
Arrest her!
“If the Mafia and terrorism are similar, and represent war on the state, and if Silvia Romano is a radical convert to Islam, she must be arrested for abetting terrorism. Either she repents or she is an accomplice of the terrorists”.
(Vittorio Sgarbi, MP from the Mixed group, on Facebook - 10 May)
Islamic
“Of course, to see Silvia Romano get off the Italian state flight dressed as an Islamist... er... to then hear that she has always been treated well and that during her imprisonment she even converted to Islam...”
(Matteo Salvini during the traditional nightly live on Instagram - 11 May)
The ungrateful
“Slap Italy: Islamic and happy, Silvia the ungrateful”
“We paid 4 million to save her, but the volunteer came back in the uniform of the jihadist enemy”
(Il Giornale, front page)
In Nazi clothing
“It is as if an inmate in a German concentration camp had returned home, received with full honours by his Prime Minister, proudly wearing the uniform of the Nazi army.”
(Il Giornale editor Alessandro Sallusti, front page - 11 May)
“We freed an Islamic woman”
“Young tender with Allah's terrorists. Enthusiastic imams: ‘We are waiting for you’. Her pastor happy too”
(Libero opens like this on the front page - 11 May)
Converted to Mohammed
“Conte and Di Maio make a commercial and a gift to Islamic terrorists”
“The return of Silvia-Aisha Romano, kidnapped and converted to Mohammed, becomes an own goal. The images of the woman freed (to the tune of millions) and welcomed with full honours go around the world. Just as Al Shabaab wanted”.”
(La Verità, front page - 11 May)
“Heroin” in inverted commas
“Tired of paying for the adventures of the ‘heroines’ of pacifism”.”
“Anyone is free to ruin their life as they see fit. So Silvia Romano is free to go and be a Red Cross nurse helping the underprivileged in a remote hole in Africa, but (...)”
(Maurizio Belpietro, editor of La Verità, front page - 11 May)
Take that stupid rag off your head....
“I am delighted about the liberation, now I hope he gets rid of what Oriana Fallaci called ‘stupid medieval rag’.’ (jilbab, ed.), to become a free woman again in her own right”.”
(Daniela Santanchè, Fdi MP, on Instagram - 10 May)
Gaius Julius Caesar Mussolini
“4 million and more given to Al Shabaab ‘thanks’ to the madness of an Italian NGO. That's enough now”
(The tweet by the great-grandson of the Duce and member of Fratelli d'Italia - 10 May)
Discount-Islam
“For Greta-Vanessa we paid 11 million, for Sgrena 5 million and Calipari's life (the Americans do not like those who pay ransoms to Islamist extortionists, the US never pays but makes them pay), for Silvia discount-Islam to 4 million. Plus Libya to Erdogan. Di Maio's trick”
(Mario Adinolfi, president of the Popolo della Famiglia, on Twitter - 10 May)
Feltri and his terrorist friends
“Paying the ransom for Silvia means financing Islamic terrorists. Who are friends of the girl who has become a Muslim. Nice operation”
(Vittorio Feltri, editor of Libero, on Twitter - 10 May)
Brainwashing
“(...) Dear friends, we could not but rejoice at the return of one of our compatriots to her homeland (...) but should we rejoice at the fact that Silvia Romano was brainwashed into converting to Islam, that she was forced to marry an Islamic terrorist her jailer, that she is now carrying the child of an Islamic terrorist? (...)”
(Magdi Cristiano Allam, journalist, essayist, former MEP, on Facebook - 10 May)
Excuse me, are you a convert?
“Welcome back Silvia. But she came back converted as a Muslim. Nothing against it. But when she left it seems to me she was not. So converted while in captivity. We'd like to know more. As well as knowing the manner of her liberation and its cost. It seems to me the minimum”.”
(Paolo Romani, Forza Italia Senator - 10 May)
That fine shirt of his
“It's impressive, I too was shocked to see her come down dressed like that, Silvia Romano: we all remembered her in another way, smiling, jeans, blouses. Today we see her coming down covered, she refused to change, she wanted to keep this dress, and the controversy has erupted”
(Massimo Giletti, host of Non è l'Arena, La7 - 10 May)
Tell us if you are a fundamentalist
“Let us hope that Silvia follows the Islamic religion of the great mosque in Rome, and not that of Viale Jenner in Milan, that of the fundamentalists. Because if Silvia were a fundamentalist, I would criticise her like all fundamentalists everywhere”;
“Silvia Romano must tell us whether she chose freely or not... tell us! Because it may have cost us 4 million!”
(Maurizio Gasparri, Forza Italia senator, at Non è l'Arena, on La7 - 10 May)
The tam tam
“Silvia Romano, tam tam on the internet, the detail that did not go unnoticed: ‘Is she pregnant?’ The suspicious roundness and those caresses on her belly”
(Liberoquotidiano.it - 10 May)
“Silvia Romano freed. How much did they pay?”
“The shadow of a ransom paid by 007 to a group close to Al Qaeda. But public money is not used to finance jihad...”
“(...) in some time, perhaps, Silvia will feel like telling her story and commenting on the rumours that in September she was converted and forced into marriage with an Islamic rite”.”
(Libero, front page - 10 May)
