I Love Italy - "Italy passes emergency rape law"

The tougher rape laws -- excellent!  But that it seems to have been done on the back of anti-immigrant feeling is pretty yucky.  The end is good, but the means is bothersome.

Historically, rape has been used as both a way of asserting ownership (women as property) and a tool of war, to 'complete' the conquering and subjugationof another nation or people.  The anti-immigrant element here is troubling because it's like a reaction against the violation to their property, or the violation of 'us' by 'them'.  This sounds like less a realization of the importance of preventing violation of girls/women/people than indignancy that those nasty foreigners dared to take "our" women.  I'm a little queasy about the quickness of the action, too, for the same reason -- I mean, surely Italians must have been aware that females, esp. female children, have been victims of rape before this -- so these cases are distinguished by the 'immigrant' element.

Of course, that's all assuming the BBC is reporting the cause and effect reasonably accurately.  BBC is usually pretty good but these days I read any media reports with a fairly high skepticism factor.

I don't mean to throw a wet rag on your post or the fact of the stricter laws -- it's still something to celebrate -- but I'm really bothered.  Although, waxing philosophical, it's rare that any political advance occurs unhampered by something of a downside.