World Stars Celebrites: Mara Carfagna Italian model

Maria Rosaria (Mara) Carfagna born December 18, 1975 in Salerno is an Italian politician and former showgirl and topless model. After obtaining a degree in law, Carfagna worked for several years on Italian television shows and as a model. She later entered politics and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for Forza Italia party in 2006. On May 8, 2008, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi appointed her Minister for Equal Opportunity, a move that received international attention due to her background and her appearance. Carfagna has been called "the most beautiful minister in the world", and was ranked number one on Maxim's "World´s Hottest Politicians".
Contents
* 1 Background
* 2 Career as showgirl and model
* 3 Political career
* 4 Controversies
* 5 References
* 6 External links
Background
Carfagna was born in Salerno, where she attended the Liceo scientifico Giovanni da Procida.In 2001 she graduated in law from the University of Salerno, with a thesis on information law and broadcasting systems.
Career as showgirl and model
After having studied dance and piano, she participated in the Miss Italy contest in 1997, finishing in sixth place. About the experience she later said: "That competition makes you as a woman, it matures you...All that stress, that desire to win, it makes you understand who you are."
Later she started working in television for the company Mediaset, controlled by the family of Silvio Berlusconi.From 2000 to 2006 she participated as a showgirl in the television program La domenica del villaggio ("Sunday in the Village") with Davide Mengacci. In 2006 she led the program Piazza grande ("Main Square") together with Giancarlo Magalli. Carfagna has also been part of the television programs I cervelloni, Vota la voce and Domenica In.
Mara Carfagna has in the past posed nude on several occasions, for magazines such as Maxim. Reticent to talk about her modelling past, she has nevertheless suggested that she had certain reservations about the work. On one occasion she said: "I am a bit of a prude and I found getting undressed in front of a camera not a pleasant experience." She states that she is a firm believer in family values, and claimed in an interview that she once refused to take part in a movie directed by erotic filmmaker Tinto Brass.
Political career
Carfagna entered politics in 2004, and became responsible for the women's movement in the political party Forza Italia (presently The People of Freedom). In the elections of 2006 she was elected into the Chamber of Deputies for Forza Italia, and in the 2008 elections – running as the third candidate from The People of Freedom in the district "Campania 2" – she was reelected. When she first entered parliament Berlusconi jokingly commented that Forza Italia practiced the law of primae noctis; the right of a feudal lord to take the virginity of his female subjects As a deputy she was secretary of the Commission for Constitutional Affairs, and has been described as a diligent, hard-working parliamentarian. On May 8, 2008 she was appointed Minister for Equal Opportunity, in the fourth cabinet of Silvio Berlusconi, an appointment that was widely publicised internationally, with focus on her special background.
Gay pride protest against Carfagna in Catania, 2008.
Carfagna has been vocal on certain issues, such as the level of crime in her home town of Salerno, after having herself been the victim of burglary on three different occasions. She describes herself as an antifeminist, as she believes that "liberty" depends not on independence, but on rules and discipline. She opposes certain gay rights, and says that matrimonial rights should be tied to reproduction. Soon after her accession she refused to back a gay pride march, arguing that discrimination was no longer a problem for homosexuals in Italy, a statement that was strongly criticised by gay rights groups.
In September 2008, Carfagna introduced a new law making street prostitution a crime, with fines for both clients and prostitutes. The bill was her first major initiative as a minister. She said that at present in Italy, "as in the great majority of Western countries", brothels and the exploitation of prostitutes by pimps were illegal but prostitution as such was not. She described street prostitution as a "shameful phenomenon".
Carfagna was criticized by prostitutes' representatives and other charities for introducing the bill. However, some Catholic charities praised her for having the courage to "take on prostitution as a serious social evil".
In 2010 during political debate for the 8th March celebration she claimed that women gained the right to vote in Italy in 1960 (while they did in 1946) and that the law that rules intrahousehold relationship was reformed in 1970 (while it was in 1975)

Mara Carfagna

mara carfagna