Introduction

In 1958, a new law regulating prostitution, the Merlin law (L. 75/58), fought for by the socialist MP Lina Merlin, abolished the previous system of regulation that had been established in 1861, the year of Italy's unification (Gibson 1995). Since then the law has been only slightly modified. It is a classic abolitionist law, prohibiting not only trafficking and the exploitation of prostitution, but all forms of aiding and abetting with or without the intent of financial gain. Therefore it allows only street prostitution or prostitution by a woman in her own house or apartment. The decision to close the brothels and liberate the 2,500 women deprived of many of their civil rights by being obliged to reside in brothels was greeted as a liberation in the spirit of equality.

The Merlin law, which took ten years to be passed, never ceased to be an object of public debate, periodically emerging in the national media with articles, books, campaigns for the gathering of signatures to repeal and proposals for new laws. Defence of the law against repeated attacks by a very mixed public (though commonly composed of the right wing) who demanded the re-opening of the ‘case chiuse’ (closed houses, i.e. brothels), has always been acknowledged as a feminist issue. Yet support for the ‘Merlin’ is much broader: it is also backed by the Catholic church and the majority of the Marxist (now post-communist) parties. Many Catholic volunteer associations, although they are hostile to feminism, work on prostitution.