Gadhafi urges Islamic conversion for Italian women
Last Updated: Monday, November 16, 2009 | 11:05 AM ET
The Associated Press
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi shows a torn copy of the UN Charter during his address to the 64th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2009. (Richard Drew/Associated Press)Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, in Rome to attend a United Nations summit on world hunger, hosted a soiree with some 200 young Italian women and tried to persuade them to convert to Islam.
A reporter for Italy's ANSA news agency went undercover with the women, who were each paid $78 by a modelling agency to attend the event Sunday evening.
Journalist Paola Lo Mele said the women assembled at a hotel, where some were left behind because they were not tall enough or dressed modestly enough.
Those accepted were taken to a Rome villa, where Gadhafi lectured them on women's rights and religion, and urged them to convert to Islam. Lo Mele took pictures before and after the event, showing the women carrying Qur'ans they received as gifts.
© The Canadian Press, 2009
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