Italian town to fine women for revealing outfits

LONDON - In a move that appears to be an act of moral policing, authorities in a small Italian town have decided to fine women who wear miniskirts or show too much cleavage, a media report said here Friday.

The fair sex will face fines of up to 500 euros (about $695) under new rules to be introduced in an Italian town, the Daily Telegraph reported.

In a move sharply at odds with a country which produced the likes of Monica Bellucci and Sophia Loren, the town of Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples, intends to prohibit women from wearing provocative clothing.

The town’s council also wants to ban men and women from wearing low-slung jeans as part of a list of 41 new rules that “every good citizen must respect”, the report said.

Luigi Bobbio, the mayor, said it was all part of an effort to “restore urban decorum and improve coexistence” by targeting people who were “rowdy, unruly or simply badly behaved”.

Playing football in parks and gardens and swearing in public will also be banned under new regulations which will be put forward for approval at a council meeting Monday.

If the new regulations are approved, offenders will face fines of between 25 and 500 euros.

Italy has become entangled in a web of petty rules and regulations in the last two years after the government of Silvio Berlusconi gave councils extra powers to tailor laws to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.

Across the nation, towns have banned a range of seemingly innocuous activities such as building sandcastles on the beach, kissing in cars and feeding stray cats.