《中英對照讀新聞》Forcing wife to scrub floor is a crime 強迫太太擦地構成犯罪

◎陳成良

Forcing your wife to kneel down and scrub the house floor clean is a crime because it amounts to mistreatment, Italy's highest appeals court ruled.

義大利最高上訴法院裁定，強迫你的太太跪著擦洗屋內地板構成犯罪，因為這形同虐待。

The court upheld a conviction for ill-treatment handed down to a man who was left by his wife after what she said were years of abuse and threats.

該法庭維持一名男子被判虐待太太的有罪判決，他太太聲稱多年來飽受凌虐與威脅後，離他而去。

"The husband humiliated and burdened her in every way, to the point of forcing her to clean the floor on her knees as a punishment for the insufficient dedication that in his view the woman put into housework," the court said.

法庭說︰「這名丈夫用各種方式羞辱並加重她的負擔，甚至強迫她跪在地上擦地板，以懲罰她沒有達到他要求她盡心盡力做家事的標準。」

The floor-scrubbing verdict came one day after it ruled that calling someone a "faggot" is a punishable insult.

擦地板案判決出爐前一天，最高上訴法院判決以「男同志」稱呼一個人，是觸法的侮辱性用詞。

In two recent controversial judgments, the court ruled that calling a foreigner "dirty negro" is not necessarily racist and that sexually abusing a teenager is less serious a crime if the girl is not a virgin.

該法院最近還有兩件引起爭議的判決，一是裁決以「骯髒黑鬼」稱呼外國人並不盡然是種族歧視；一是性虐待青少年的犯行，如果被害少女不是處女，犯行就沒那麼嚴重。

In recent years it has returned a verdict that an "isolated and impulsive" pat on a woman's bottom at work did not constitute sexual harassment, and stated that a woman could not have been raped because she was wearing skin-tight jeans.

數年前，該法院曾駁回一項在工作場合打女性屁股「獨立且係因一時衝動」的舉動不構成性騷擾的判決；還曾在一起性侵害案中指稱，因為被害女性穿著緊身牛仔褲，因此不可能遭強暴。

新聞辭典

kneel down：跪下。例句： She knelt down to pray.（她跪下來祈禱）。

dedication：名詞，專心致力；獻身。His dedication to teaching gained the respect of his colleagues.（他致力於教學的精神，贏得同事們的尊敬）。

faggot：俚語，男同性戀（輕蔑的用語）。homo也是歧視同性戀的用語。「同性戀」一詞的英文還包括gay、queer （不分男女）、lesbian（女同性戀）、homosexual （醫界正式稱法）。