Italian girl. Ediz. italiana

On the night of May 1, 2021, eighteen-year-old Saman disappears after returning to her family home to retrieve the documents she needed to leave with her boyfriend. Her lifeless body is found only a year and a half later, in an abandoned farmhouse not far from the house. Her parents and uncle are convicted of her murder. The motive behind the crime is the desire to suppress the girl’s longing for freedom as she challenges the impositions of her family and clan in pursuit of independence and happiness.

Elisa Giobbi lends her voice to the young Pakistani woman, giving us the pages of an emotional diary in which Saman confides her suspicions, feelings and fears, dreams and intimate desires. She recounts her final year of life: the deprivations and punishments, her escapes, the journey to her homeland, the engagement forced upon her with a cousin, her time in a shelter, and her love for a boy she met online—until the night of her execution.

Saman’s shattered adolescence, her life “surrounded by false and manipulative affection, in a loneliness that leaves one stunned” (as stated by the Court), thus takes on a universal meaning, becoming a symbol of the struggle for personal freedom and the right to choose one’s own destiny—themes that transcend every cultural and social boundary.