Photo via Flickr user StoryTravelers
A 40-year-old woman who lives in the town of Sonnino—which is located in Italy's Lazio region—is being sued by her husband for neglecting to do housework and cook him meals. Having been officially charged with "mistreatment of the family," she faces upwards of six years in prison. All thanks to her "poor management of the household chores."Seriously.According to The Local, the 47-year-old husband released a statement in which he wrote about feeling "insulted" by the two-year-long negligence of his wife. In addition to claiming that the food he bought always ended up in the trash due to her lack of cooking, the husband was "forced to live in conditions with poor hygiene." He also claims to have been kicked out of their bedroom.The husband filed a formal complaint with the Carabinieri police. It stated that the wife was "slovenly, failed to put meals on the table, and left their home in a dreadful mess."RT reports that instead of dismissing the complaint as a domestic dispute, a court in the town of Sonnino actually decided to prosecute the woman. Judge Mara Mattioli, a female judge, will preside. A trial date has been set for October 12 of this year and prosecutor Gregorio Capasso is said to have already begun investigating the matter. The woman faces a sentence of up to six years in prison.The crime apparently arises under article 572 of the Italian penal code, which "punishes whoever mistreats a person in their family or a person entrusted to them for reasons of education, care or custody."The Italian newspaper Il Tempo wrote, It's a case that seems to have come from the 1950s and not from a country where equality between the sexes should be a given."This case comes on the heel of a ruling in Sicily this week, where a court ruled that a male boss who groped three female colleagues was just being "playful," not "lascivious."Sounds like it's well past time for the courts of Italy to make a change or two in the way they view women and their role in society.
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