Chronicles of ordinary racism 2011 - Cronache di ordinario razzismo

Sanaa’s murder
Paola Andrisani
On 15th September 2009 Sanaa Dafani, an 18‐year old girl of Moroccan origin, is killed
by her father, El Ke‐tawi Dafani, a 45‐year‐old Maroccan citizen, who stabs her
repeatedly in the throat. The murder takes place in a wood next to Grizzo, a small
hamlet belonging to the municipality of Montereale Valcellina in the province of
Pordenone. Her “Italian” partner Massimo De Blasio, 31, is driving Sanaa to the
restaurant where she works as a waitress. Her father is lying in wait in a secluded road
and attacks the young couple as soon as they get out of the car. Sanaa tries to escape but
her father chases her down and kills her. Her partner, wounded during the
confrontation, calls for help and informs rescuers that the murderer is Sanaa’s father. El
Katawi Dafani is arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment as a result of the trial held
in June 2010; the penalty is reduced to 30 years in January 2011.
Sanaa ‘s murder is a terrible and unacceptable crime. However, Sanaa’s body is violated
again and again after her death in the course of a public debate that uses indignant
rhetoric to launch yet another Islamophobic campaign and back he theory of the
supposedly incompatible nature of different “cultures”.
From the very first, the media tends to interpret the murder as stemming from the
alleged clash between different religions and cultures. 238 And we are back to square one.
Three years after the murder of Hina Saleem 239 in Brescia, the death of Sanaa is
exploited in order to recycle the idea that the social and cultural integration of
238 Cf. among the others: Figlia musulmana ama un italiano, il padre la uccide (Muslim daughter loves an Italian. Her father
kills her) 16 September 2009, Ansa; Pordenone: padre marocchino uccide la figlia, forse un altro caso Hina (Pordenone:
Moroccan father kills his daughter. Another case like Hina’s 16 September 2009, Asca; Marocchina 18enne uccisa dal padre.
Viveva col fidanzato. Vietato dalla tradizione (Moroccan girl of 18 murdered by her father. She lived with her partner. Tradition
forbids it.), 15 September 2009, “La Repubblica”; Il padre di Sanaa: ‘Era la mia vergogna’. La figlia uccisa perché conviveva
con un italiano. Il pm: la pista dei motivi religiosi (Sanaa’s father: she was my shame’. Daughter murdered because she lived
with an Italian. Prosecutor follows the line of enquiry of religious motives), 17 September 2009, “Corriere della Sera”; Uccide la
figlia che ama un italiano. Gli amici: Era bella, voleva integrarsi (Murders daughter who loved an Italian. Her friends: she was
beautiful and wanted to fit in), 16 September 2009, quotidiano.net; Minigonne, lavoro e ragazzi. Sanaa uccisa perché occidentale
(Mini-skirts, a job and men. Sanaa killed for belonging to the Western world) , 17 September 2009, “Il Giornale”; Giovane
marocchina ama un italiano: il padre la uccide (Young Moroccan girl loves an Italian. Her father kills her), 16 September 2009,
“Il Sole 24 Ore”; Marocchino accoltella a morte la figlia (Moroccan man stabs his daughter to death), 15 September 2009, “La
Stampa”; Si fidanza con un italiano, marocchino uccide la figlia: le prime ammissioni (In a relationship with an Italian,
Moroccan man kills his daughter: the first confessions), 16 September 2009, “Il Messaggero”; Il fidanzato è italiano. E il padre
la uccide (The partner is Italian. Her father kills her), 16 September 2009, “Avvenire”; Amava un italiano “infedele”. Sanaa, 18
anni, sgozzata dal padre a Pordenone. (She loves an Italian. ”infidel”. Sanaa, 18, butchered by her father in Pordenone), 16
September 2009, “Il Gazzettino”; Musulmana ama italiano il padre la uccide (Muslim girl loves an Italian. Her father kills her),
15 September 2009, “Il Secolo XIX”.
239 The murder occurred during the summer of 2006. Hina Saleem, just turned 20, was born in Pakistan and immigrated to Italy in
1999, aged 14, to be reunited with her family who lived in Sarezzo (BS). She quickly settled into Italian society, promptly
learning the language, making friends, attending schools and showing a certain degree of independence from her family. She had
later found a job in a pizzeria in Brescia and decided to move in with her partner, Giuseppe Tempini, a 33-year-old blue-collar
worker. It would appear that it was this decision to choose an “Italian non-Muslim” partner that particularly clashed with the will
of the family who wished to marry her off to a “Pakistani husband”, and from that moment the relationship between Hina and her
family became tense. The murder unfolded in her father’s house where Hina is called on a pretext (the visit of a relative) while
her father and some other male relatives lay in wait for her. Her mother (Bushra Begun, 46), brothers and sisters were on holidays
in Pakistan. The final ruling of the court rejected the defense’s request to reduce the penalty for “cultural and religious reasons”.
The verdict states that Hina was not killed by her father in name of “cultural or religious reasons or traditions” but because of a
“twisted and pathologic relationship of parental possession” that made him unable to accept his daughter’s desire for freedom and
autonomy.
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