This article draws on the proceedings of a criminal trial and the media discourse this trial ignited. Both are pervaded by images of oppressive and fundamentalist “Islamic families,” whose choices and everyday actions would be the expression of a tradition that denies the rights of women and youth. Besides bringing to light the components and the modalities of a representation which turns into a mechanism of social exclusion, the analysis invites to reflect on the ideology of fundamental human rights and, in particular, on the gap between the recognition of cultural pluralism in principle and the tendency to believe that universal rights can be realized only through “Western” and “modern” practices.