A Pakistani woman who said she was tricked by her family into going to Pakistan for a forced marriage is on her way back to Italy after an intervention from the Italian Foreign Ministry. Menoona Safdar has been put on a plane to Italy "putting an end to a grave violation of [her] fundamental rights," the ministry said in a Thursday statement.
The woman, who according to the ANSA news agency is 23, was "held against her will in Pakistan by her family," but the Italian embassy in Islamabad secured her release, the ministry said. According to ANSA, Safdar lived in the northern Italian province of Monza until July 2017, when her family convinced her to go to Pakistan to visit relatives.
Upon arriving, they took away her documents and left her in the country, with the idea of forcing her to marry a local. The woman wrote to her old high school in Italy to ask for help. The school reported the case to police and prosecutors. The story was picked up by Italian media earlier this week, prompting the interest of politicians and of the foreign ministry.