SOMALINET NEWS ...Archives
NETHERLANDS: BURQAS TO BE BANNED IN PUBLIC November 18, 2006
Zainab Osman
(SomaliNet) Five days before a national election here, the government announced Friday that it planned to introduce legislation to ban burqas and similar garments in public places, saying the full-body garb posed a grave security threat.
The Netherlands has been considering such a move for months, in reaction to the burqa and other articles of clothing that hide the wearer's face. The government has raised the fear that a terrorist might wear such a garment to move beyond security checks and carry out an attack.
But if it should pass in Parliament, women would be prohibited from wearing burqas in a variety of public settings, including schools, trains, courts and even on the street.
"The cabinet finds it undesirable that face-covering clothing, including the burqa, is worn in public places for reasons of public order, security and protection of citizens," the immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, said Friday.
About a million Muslims live in the Netherlands, about 6 percent of the population, and only 50 to 100 women regularly wear a burqa here, Muslim groups say, making them a rare sight. "It's ridiculous," said Yasar Kalkan, a Muslim auto mechanic.
France banned from its schools the hijab, the head scarf worn by many Muslim girls and women, along with other conspicuous religious symbols. Britain's highest court ruled this year that a secondary school was within its rights to ban a female student from wearing a jilbab, a loose, ankle-length gown, instead of the regular school uniform.
Last month, Britain's former foreign secretary, Jack Straw, raised a commotion when he urged Muslim women to remove full facial veils when talking to him, saying the veil was "such a visible statement of separation and of difference" that it jeopardized British social ha Netherlands: Burqas to be banned in public harmony. Prime Minister Tony Blair subsequently backed Mr. Straw.