Trading Female Bodies: The Unbearable Lightness of Prejudice in Sole bruciato by Elvira Dones

Abstract

In November 2021, in an act of despair, Adelina Sejdini, an Albanian woman who had bravely denounced her pimps and captors, put an end to her life by throwing herself into the Tiber River in Rome. Adelina was one of the numerous Albanian women kidnapped at a very young age in her own country and destined to the sex trafficking market in Italy. She endured the unspeakable violence of her tormentors, but she could not survive the systemic failures and rigid migration laws that left her hopeless and isolated. This article will address the issue of sex trafficking in Italy from the perspective of the young Albanian women who were forced into it, as described in Elvira Dones's Sole bruciato. More specifically, I will examine how prejudice spread through the Italian media played a significant role in facilitating the institutional mechanisms that kept Albanian women prisoners despite the clear evidence of their abuse.