A 28-year-old Italian woman of Moroccan origin was barred from a gym at Mirandola near Modena on Friday because she was wearing a veil.
The woman, who works as an interpreter, appealed to the city council.
"The owner," she wrote to the mayor, "refused my membership because I dress in a not very western way".
"I asked for clarification and he replied that in his gym he doesn't let in nuns or Batman, alluding to the veil that covers my head."
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