Meriem e Soukouna they rest close. One stopped breathing shortly after seeing the light, the other tried to fight for a few days. Both have left torn families behind, but their ordeal is not over. The two babies cannot yet leave the cold rooms of the morgue of Catanzaro and it is not known when they will be able to do so. In all of Calabria there is no cemetery that can accommodate them.
Reason? Both were born into Muslim families – of Moroccan origin Meriam, Senegalese Soukouna – an integral part of a community that has been permanently resident in Calabria for decades, but forced to feel foreign after their death. And to migrate, again. There are no Islamic or secular cemeteries. For Mohammad, Meriem’s father, is pain that is added to pain. He will not be able to pay attention and care to that daughter whom he did not have time to meet even after death because even her grave will be far away. In these hours she is looking for a tomb for the newborn in other regions, because in all of Calabria there is no place for her.
In Reggio a few years ago the migrant cemetery was inaugurated, designed to house the victims of the Mediterranean crossings, but in which later even those who professed faiths other than the Catholic one found burial and rest. The space, already limited, quickly became saturated. “For some time now Reggio Calabria has reserved burials for residents in the metropolitan city. For all the others, the only solutions are either repatriation to their country of origin or a tomb in one of the eighty Islamic cemeteries in Italy”.
To speak is Antonio Carioti, the president of Dar Assalam, the voluntary association of Muslims of Catanzaro. He is not a foreigner, his parents do not come from a different country or city, they are Italian, Catholics and Catanzaro. However, a few years ago he began a path of faith different from that of the family. He began to study Islam, he deepened its precepts, he really studied the Catholic religion to understand the differences and he converted. “As a Muslim, I became aware of the preconceptions faced by those who profess Islam, of the prejudices of which they are victims. For too many, our faith rhymes with terrorism, but it is a religion of peace”. And much more widespread than you think.
Over 2,000 Muslims live permanently in Catanzaro city alone, more than 12,000 throughout the province. “And these are rough estimates because they date back to two or three years ago. But for the institutions – he complains – we are ghosts”. Or at least foreigners, guests. “It is paradoxical – affirms Carioti – because here there are now children who belong to the second, if not the third generation. They were born and raised here and often have never seen their parents’ country, if not perhaps to go on vacation. they speak the language, they do not know it. They may well have been born to families who come from Egypt, Morocco or Africa, but they are from Catanzaro because they were born and raised here “. If they die, however, they are forced to leave. In another region or country they have never known.
As president of Dar Assalam, Carioti repeatedly found himself discussing the matter with the administration currently led by the mayor Sergio Abramo, because over and over again families who have suffered a bereavement have turned to the association to understand how and where to bury their loved ones. “Ours is a simple request: to have a space for an Islamic cemetery. There are four in the city, but they are all Catholics. For the administration, however, they respect all constitutional guarantees, so the problem does not arise for them”. And families are forced to look for a grave for their loved ones far from the Catanzaro they have chosen as their home. “It is a paradoxical situation. And I mentioned this to the administration with a very simple example: if I died – born and raised in Catanzaro, with a family from Catanzaro – but converted, where would they repatriate me?”. But no answers came.
.