Sexual Harassment

ROME — In Italy, sexual harassment is a young woman’s problem.

That is apparently the opinion of Italian prosecutors who have dropped a sexual harassment case against the former leader of the powerful Italian soccer federation because they concluded the woman he allegedly groped was too old to be distressed by his advances.

In a report that came to light Thursday, Roman prosecutors decided that Carlo Tavecchio, once arguably the most powerful man in Italian sport, may have groped Elisabetta Cortani, the president of the female division of the Lazio soccer club, but that she had reported it too late, knew him too well, and been alive too long for the charges to stick.

“Unfortunately, that’s what happened,” said Domenico Mariani, Ms. Cortani’s lawyer, who on Thursday morning filed an objection to the prosecutors’ dismissal of the case. He said that the prosecutors had written that harassment was “incompatible” with the accusation made by Ms. Cortani, 53, because, in part, she was too old to have been intimidated by her accused harasser.

“Maybe I am old for them,” Ms. Cortani, a mother of two, said in an interview Thursday. “But I can assure you that I felt in a position of subordination, I felt afraid. Because being in that room meant being in the heart of Italian soccer. And in that room, subordination and fear have no age.”

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Vittorio Pisa, a lawyer for Mr. Tavecchio, 74, said his client denied the accusations. Her story was first reported in The Guardian.

The charges come at a time when Italy’s lack of outrage against sexual harassment has made it an old-world outlier as women in the United States and other European countries have aggressively denounced abuse and targeted its perpetrators in entertainment, politics, the media, the food industry and many other sectors of society.

Vittorio Pisa, a lawyer for Mr. Tavecchio, 74, said his client denied the accusations. Her story was first reported in The Guardian.

The charges come at a time when Italy’s lack of outrage against sexual harassment has made it an old-world outlier as women in the United States and other European countries have aggressively denounced abuse and targeted its perpetrators in entertainment, politics, the media, the food industry and many other sectors of society.

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But in Italy, the country that gave the world Silvio Berlusconi and his Bunga Bunga bacchanals with young women, sexual harassment is often seen as an exaggerated label for romantic passes. Here, a transactional approach to sex and power is often taken for granted as the natural order of things.

Most recently, Italian newspapers, commentators and social media users vilified Asia Argento, an Italian actress, after she accused Harvey Weinstein of rape in a hotel room, arguing that she knew all too well what she was doing in that room.

Women in the Italian parliament sought to call attention to the way Italy’s patriarchal society ignored harassment by sharing their stories in a chamber — filled only with women.

Vittorio Pisa, a lawyer for Mr. Tavecchio, 74, said his client denied the accusations. Her story was first reported in The Guardian.

The charges come at a time when Italy’s lack of outrage against sexual harassment has made it an old-world outlier as women in the United States and other European countries have aggressively denounced abuse and targeted its perpetrators in entertainment, politics, the media, the food industry and many other sectors of society.

You have 4 free articles remaining.

Subscribe to The Times
But in Italy, the country that gave the world Silvio Berlusconi and his Bunga Bunga bacchanals with young women, sexual harassment is often seen as an exaggerated label for romantic passes. Here, a transactional approach to sex and power is often taken for granted as the natural order of things.

Most recently, Italian newspapers, commentators and social media users vilified Asia Argento, an Italian actress, after she accused Harvey Weinstein of rape in a hotel room, arguing that she knew all too well what she was doing in that room.

Women in the Italian parliament sought to call attention to the way Italy’s patriarchal society ignored harassment by sharing their stories in a chamber — filled only with women.

Vittorio Pisa, a lawyer for Mr. Tavecchio, 74, said his client denied the accusations. Her story was first reported in The Guardian.

The charges come at a time when Italy’s lack of outrage against sexual harassment has made it an old-world outlier as women in the United States and other European countries have aggressively denounced abuse and targeted its perpetrators in entertainment, politics, the media, the food industry and many other sectors of society.

You have 4 free articles remaining.

Subscribe to The Times
But in Italy, the country that gave the world Silvio Berlusconi and his Bunga Bunga bacchanals with young women, sexual harassment is often seen as an exaggerated label for romantic passes. Here, a transactional approach to sex and power is often taken for granted as the natural order of things.

Most recently, Italian newspapers, commentators and social media users vilified Asia Argento, an Italian actress, after she accused Harvey Weinstein of rape in a hotel room, arguing that she knew all too well what she was doing in that room.

Women in the Italian parliament sought to call attention to the way Italy’s patriarchal society ignored harassment by sharing their stories in a chamber — filled only with women.

Vittorio Pisa, a lawyer for Mr. Tavecchio, 74, said his client denied the accusations. Her story was first reported in The Guardian.

The charges come at a time when Italy’s lack of outrage against sexual harassment has made it an old-world outlier as women in the United States and other European countries have aggressively denounced abuse and targeted its perpetrators in entertainment, politics, the media, the food industry and many other sectors of society.