A woman in Italy who was told she looks "too masculine" to have been a victim of rape has been granted a retrial after two men were acquitted of the alleged crime.

A panel of three female judges made the comment about the 22-year-old victim during an appeal in Anacona in 2017.

According to The Washington Post, the Italian Supreme Court threw out their decision on Friday, ordering a retrial for the woman, who was allegedly attacked in 2015 on Italy's Adriatic coast.

The comment was made during the appeal process. (Getty Images/PhotoAlto)

The judges had ruled the woman was "too masculine" after seeing a photo of her.

The reasons given for the acquittal were revealed on Friday, leading to a protest attended by hundreds of people on Monday.

Rebel Network, the Italian women’s rights group behind Monday’s protest, tweeted: “Rape does not fulfil a desire for pleasure, but an abominable hatred and contempt for the victim. It does not depend on how feminine you are, but on the hatred inside the rapist.”

A doctor’s report presented at the original trial stated the woman's injuries were consistent with rape and that her blood showed a high level of benzodiazepines (a type of tranquiliser).

In their decision, the judges had written it was "not possible to exclude the possibility" that the crime didn't take place.

The judges noted one man "didn't even like the girl", to the point of having stored her number in his phone under the nickname "Viking", which they concluded meant they considered her to be more of a "masculine" figure rather than a "feminine figure".

The woman, who lives in Peru, was not at the 2017 appeal, however after the ruling was handed own, her lawyer called the judges' reasoning "disgusting", immediately filing a new appeal to the supreme court.

“It was disgusting to read; the judges expressed various reasons for deciding to acquit them, but one was because the [defendants] said they didn’t even like her, because she was ugly,” Cinzia Molinaro, the woman’s lawyer, told The Guardian.

“They also wrote that a photograph [of the woman] reflected this.”

The case will now be reheard by a court in Perugia, a city about 80 miles away from Ancona.