Tom Powell
THE town of Reus in Catalunya has become the first in Spain to ban burqas in public.
The city council voted through the policy despite Spain’s Supreme Court announcing municipal authorities did not have the power to do so in 2013.
Full face veils, often worn by Muslim women, were controversially banned from public areas in France in 2010, and the European Union backed the country’s right to do so.
Reus’ coalition government – PP and Catalan nationalist – wanted to add a €750 fine for those caught with a full face veil, but the mayor decided it would be too difficult to enforce.
However, police officers will be able to stop and demand identification from anyone found breaking the new law.
According to El Pais, politicians claimed the law was necessary for ‘security’ and ‘coexistence’.
when we go to their Countries we must obey their rules so when they come to ours they Must obey our rules
The other week, a leading Oxford Muslim academic wrote an article prompting Britain to do so. He cited than nowhere in the Koran enforces this dress for women. “Modesty” in dress being the watchword. Strikingly, he points out that most British Muslims are of Pakistani origin, and that the young British burqa wearers mothers never wore them. The salwar kameez being the traditional Pakistani women’s dress. I doubt that today’s westernised young women would take to the purdah tradition (prevalent in Pakistan) of rarely going out in public at all, and even then only with a male relative as escort.
I agree they should be banned for security reasons
There is no need for such an extreme measure – we don’t ban nuns or monks do we? Are they such extremists in Reus, Catalunya?
Nuns and monks don’t cover their faces in public (though a good few should from shame). So where is the comparison?