(ANSA) - Milan, April 5 - A Milan children's court on Wednesday temporarily removed a 14-year-old Moroccan girl from her family which had whipped her because she dressed and acted "too Western".

The girl, whose family said they disciplined her because of unacceptable behaviour, was placed in a children's home.

Her mother, father and brother are under investigation for mistreatment. "It's an unfortunately ordinary story, like many we see, where there is a cultural factor, and a conflict between a girl born in Italy who wants to live like her friends and a traditionalist family that tries to impose her upbringing with physical and above all moral violence," the court's prosecutor, Ciro Cascone, told ANSA. "The religious factor is just an aspect of the cultural one," he said.

The local mayor said "unfortunately it's not the first or last case of this kind, among girls who want to Westernise themselves".

