Yesterday the Italian Parliamentary Constitutional Affairs Commission approved a draft of a law that would ban women from covering their faces with veils, including a burqa or a naqib, in public. If the law is passed, women in violation could face fines of up to 300 euro.
Souad Sbai, a Member of the conservative Freedom People party, stated, “Five years ago, no one wore a burqa [in Italy]. Today, there is always more. We have to help women get out of this segregation…to get out of this submission. I want to speak for those who don’t have a voice, who don’t have the strength to yell and say, ‘I am not doing well.'” She estimated that approximately 3,000 women cover their faces in public in Italy.
Currently France and Belgium, as well as Barcelona, have similar laws banning such facial coverings.
