Italy assessing how to help female Pakistani student's return

Rome, Sep 20 (IANS/AKI) Foreign minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi is "closely following" the case of a 23-year-old woman who wrote to her school in Monza begging for help to return to Italy from Pakistan, where she was taken last year "against her will", the foreign ministry said late on Tuesday.

Moavero "is closely following the case of the Pakistani girl who is being detained in her home country against her will," said the statement.

"In consideration of the gravity of the actions reported by the girl, the foreign ministry is acquiring all useful information from the relevant police authorities to verify the facts and find the most appropriate way of taking possible action to protect her rights."

The unnamed woman told her school that her family took away her documents and forced her to remain in Pakistan with her sister to punish her for wanting to study and refusing an arranged marriage there. The woman's parents then returned to Italy, she stated.

The woman's father removed her from her Italian school in 2015, forcing her to abandon her studies and stay at home, she alleged.

--IANS/AKI

ahm/