26-year old Mamel Marmouri became the first woman in Italy to be fined for wearing a burqa in public when she stopped at the post office on her way to the mosque near her home in Novara, in northern Italy. Anti-terrorist laws from the 1970s prohibit anyone from walking around in public with her face covered, but this wasn't enforced until recently, when the mayor of Novara — a member of the Northern League Party — started cracking down on things like immigration and mosque-building. Marmouri is Tunisian. Her husband, Ben Salah Braim, had this to say about the incident:
I just don't know where we are going to get 500 euros to pay the fine. We thought as she was going to the mosque she was OK to wear the burqa.
We knew about the law and I know that it's not against my religion but now Amel will have to stay indoors.
I can't have other men looking at her.
