by In Trieste
An Italian volleyball player, Lara Lugli, was fired by Volley Pordenone in March of last year after she told club executives she was expecting a baby. The case has triggered an outcry across the country.
A month later the 38-year-old woman suffered a miscarriage and informed the Serie B side that she had lost her baby. Lugli was met with a response that was “shocking for its harshness and backwardness,” she told Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
Volley Pordenone claimed it was “betrayed” by Lugli and was acting to “defend” itself “on the basis of the contract she signed,” reports Reuters.
“It is unbelievable that in 2021 becoming pregnant should be considered unprofessional, criminalised like taking cocaine and testing positive for doping” – Lugli told La Repubblica – “It is incredible that a woman is humiliated in this way and even her pain and very private details of her personal story are used.”
Lugli stated that the club informed her that “after the miscarriage she could have returned to the field, train and at least sit on the bench,” reports La Repubblica.
Italy’s foreign minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on Facebook: “To think that a woman today is forced to choose between a child and her career is no longer tolerable.”
