Daughter of Italian ex-MP Reverts To Islam

CAIRO – The daughter of a former MP for Italy of Values party Franco Barbato reverted to Islam.

Manuela Franco Barbato, now Aysha, wrote on her Facebook account “The hijab is my way, the way that Allah has chosen for me,”, Il Giornale daily reported on May 26.

The decision of reverting sparked uproar across Italy.

“I am proud of the purity of my soul. This is the divine law, who am I to object?”

Aysha decided to revert to Islam while studying in the Università L’orientale of Napoli.

Now approaching graduation, she moved to India with her husband and two children.

Italy has a Muslim population of some 1.7 million, including 20,000 reverts, according to the figures released by Istat, the national statistics agency.