Maria Carfagna - Italian Politician

Maria Rosaria Carfagna is an Italian politician and former showgirl and 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. From 2008 to 2011 she served as Minister for Equal Opportunity in Berlusconi IV Cabinet. Carfagna had been named "the most beautiful minister in the world", and was ranked number one on Maxim's "World´s Hottest Politicians".

Mara Carfagna has in the past posed open on several occasions, for magazines such as Maxim. Reluctant 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.

In 2009 she became the first political promoter of the law against stalking offence. This law was finally approved in 23 February 2009, introduced as a package of bills known as the Decreto Maroni. In the same year she signed a campaign against homophobia in Italy, with television spots, images on magazines and wall attachments on cities. She also proposed a bill against homophobia, in which homophobia was considered as an aggravating circumstance in bullying events. This bill was next refused by the Parliament.
In 2010 during political debate for the 8th March celebration she claimed that women gained the right to vote in Italy in 1960 and that the law that rules intrahousehold relationship was reformed in 1970 .