The Netherlands: Burqa ban, face mask laws frustrate Dutch Muslims

On August 1 it will be one year since the Dutch government approved a controversial law prohibiting clothing that "completely covers the face." It followed similar, albeit stricter, bans in France and Belgium.

The Dutch ban prohibited such clothing from being worn in public transport or in public buildings such as schools, hospitals and government buildings. Unlike in France and Belgium, the burqa is still permitted to be worn in the streets.

Read more at:
Burqa ban, face mask laws frustrate Dutch Muslims | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 01.08.2020

Britain: Muslim school forces girls of 11 to wear burkas

Islamic schools in Britain are forcing girls as young as 11 to wear burkas or full-face veils as part of their school uniform.

The Madani Girls’ School in Tower Hamlets, East London, requires all pupils to wear a black burka and a long a black coat outside the school. It also tells girls to wear headscarves during lessons and says its strict uniform policy is the “desired dress code of a Muslim female”.

Read more: Muslim school forces girls of 11 to wear burkas | The Times

Netherlands hopes to enforce Burka ban next year

Netherlands hopes to introduce a ban on the wearing of the full Islamic veil early next year, the interior ministry said Friday.

"We hope that the ban on wearing face-restrictive clothing will come into force at the start of 2013," spokeswoman Vera Hoogendoorn told AFP. "Everything depends on the speed with which the law is passed in the upper and lower chambers of parliament," she said.

Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Maxime Verhagen said Friday the proposal would be put to vote at the bicameral parliament after being cleared by the State Council, the highest administrative court.

For more: Netherlands hopes to enforce Islamic veil ban next year < Dutch news | Expatica The Netherlands

Burkha ban: Italy is set to join Belgium and France in banning the burkha in public - by Nick Pisa

Italy is set to be the next European Union to introduce a burkha ban after parliament announced today it would debate legislation after the summer recess.

France and Belgium already have bans in place and the proposal has the backing of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's ruling centre right coalition.

Italy's Constitutional Affairs Committee said that the bill which was initially suggested by the anti-immigration Northern League would be debated following the summer recess in September.

For more: Burkha ban: Italy is set to join Belgium and France in banning the burkha in public | Mail Online

Sweeping support to ban full Islamic veil in Western Europe as France votes on Burka ban, survey shows

Get the burka, the head-to-toe Muslim veil, off the streets. That's the message from large majorities in numerous Western European countries as French parliamentarians gear up to vote on Tuesday on a controversial proposed bill that would make it illegal for Muslim women to wear the burka in public places, a new report suggests.
 
According to a survey conducted by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center in April and May this year, support for banning the burka is especially high in France, where a whopping 82% are in favor of outlawing it in public places such as schools, hospitals and government offices, while just 17% are opposed to such measures. But the study also indicates that the garment, which has been the subject of much heated debate and controversy in Europe, is becoming increasingly unpopular in Germany, Britain, and Spain, where 71%, 62% and 59%, respectively, of those surveyed endorsed burka bans similar to the proposed French law in their own countries.

Americans, on the other hand, remain strongly opposed to such a law. Only 28% of those surveyed in the U.S. were in support of a burka ban while 65% disapproved.

For more: MUSLIM WORLD: Sweeping support to ban full Islamic veil in Western Europe as France votes on Burka ban, survey shows | Babylon & Beyond | Los Angeles Times

France: the Burka could be on the way out in Europe

The for women degrading Burka could soon be banned in France after a French parliamentary committee recommended a partial ban on the wearing of what they call radical muslim black veils covering just about all of a woman's body.

It also recommends that anyone showing visible signs of "radical religious practice" should be refused residence cards and citizenship. The interior ministry says just 1,900 women in France wear the full veils.

"It is the symbol of the repression of women, and... of extremist fundamentalism. This divisive approach is a denial of the equality between men and women and a rejection of co-existence side-by-side, without which our republic is nothing."

The report is expected to be followed by the drafting of a bill and a parliamentary debate on the issue.

For more: BBC News - France MPs' report backs Muslim face veil ban

THP: The right to wear a burka - by Brian Lilley

For the complete report from the National Post click on this link

The right to wear a burka - by Brian Lilley

In Western culture we are used to being able to see the face of someone coming towards us, the military salute even grew out of the custom of knights raising their visors with an open hand to show they were unarmed and to reveal their eyes to the person they were approaching. While I doubt that any of the covered women I pass by in Wal-Mart have weapons hidden under their flowing robes, not being able to see their eyes or the expressions on their faces as you pass them in the aisles strikes me as odd. Yet still I can't support the move to ban the burka launched last week by the Muslim Canadian Congress and supported by my colleague Tarek Fatah.

If Muslims choose to leave behind such practice of their own volition, so be it, but governments should not be entering into the fray using the heavy hand of the law.

Note EU-Digest: One could agree that it is not up to Governments to establish an acceptable dress code. Corporations, institutions and places of study, however, do have the right to do so, given their independent status.

CBCnews.ca: Burka sign of subservience, not religion, says French President Nicolas Sarkozy

For the complete report from CBCNEWS.ca click on this news

Burka sign of subservience, not religion, says French President Sarkozy

Burka sign of subservience, not religion, says French President Nicolas Sarkozy

Full-body gowns that are worn by the most conservative Muslim women have no place in France, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday. Speaking to a joint session of parliament, the French leader said wearing the burka or the niqab isn't about religion, but the subjugation of women. "In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity," Sarkozy said to extended applause in a speech at the Chateau of Versailles, southwest of Paris. He said the burka — an all-concealing traditional dress, with built-in mesh covering the eyes — is "a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement. I want to say solemnly that it will not be welcome on our territory," he said.

Note EU-Digest: Bravo Mr. Sarkozy. The wearing of a Burka is not required in the Quran. The Burka must therefore be seen as a symbol of women's oppression and radical Islam. As such it should not only be banned in France but on the whole territory of the European Union.

Huffington Post: Islamic Like Me: WhenThe Veil Is A Threat - by Danielle Crittenden

For the complete report and to review related links from The Huffington Post on the wearing of headscarfs click on this link

Islamic Like Me: When The Veil Is A Threat - Danielle Crittenden

My series about my adventures in a Saudi burka generated a lot of fascinating comments by Huffposters. Yesterday I replied to those who insisted that our Western culture was more sexually oppressive than the burka. Today I'll deal with the frequently-made-observation by readers: If a woman wants to wear a burka in a democratic society, what's it to us?" Go to the link to the Huffingtom Post at the beginning of this EU-Digest report to read all four parts of Danielle Crittenden series and the subsequent debates. Also to see a video of her experience, which appeared in Canada's National Post.