'Scanty Clothing' Banned in Italian Seaside Town

Castellammare di Stabia in southern Italy has banned scanty clothing and its police can fine skimply-clothed women who break the rule.

The ban will include skirts judged to be too short, jeans that are too low-slung and necklines that are too plunging and is intended to guard against anti-social behaviour, a spokesman for the town council told AFP.

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Mayor Luigi Bobbio of Italy's ruling People of Freedom party defended the much-derided new legislation, which prompted a small protest by female members of the opposition Democratic Party who held a "Mini-skirt Day" rally.

"Mini-skirts are not included in the ban. Mini-skirts are not considered very scanty clothing unless they're so small that they are no longer a skirt and they leave the undergarment showing," Bobbio said before the vote.

Following the vote, he said the ban made Castellammare "a civilized city."

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But a protester outside the town council on Monday held up a placard reading: "The only ones in just their underwear are Castellammare's workers" -- an apparent reference to threatened job cuts at the town's shipyard.

The new rules also ban blaspheming, sunbathing in public and playing football in many public areas -- a hugely popular pastime in the town.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government has given Italy's mayors greater powers to enforce measures seen as improving public order.

Source-AFP