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Summary In France, Belgium and parts of Spain face-covering in public has already been banned.
An Italian parliamentary commission has approved a draft law banning women from wearing veils that cover their faces in public.The draft, which was passed by the constitutional affairs commission, would prohibit women from wearing a burqa or any other garment that covers the face. It would expand a decades-old law that for security reasons prohibits people from wearing face-covering items such as masks in public places.Women who violate the ban would face fines, while third parties who force women to cover their faces in public would be fined and face up to 12 months in jail.Italy is the latest European country to act against the burqa. France and Belgium have banned the wearing of burqa-style Islamic dress in public, as has a city in Spain. The Belgium law cited security concerns.The Italian law was sponsored by Souad Sbai, a Moroccan-born member of Silvio Berlusconis conservative Freedom People party, who said she wanted to help Islamic women integrate more into Italian society.Five years ago, no one wore the burqa (in Italy). Today, there is always more. We have to help women get out of this segregation ... to get out of this submission, Sbai said.The spokesman of an Islamic group said banning the Islamic veil is unjust and touches individual liberty.This topic continues to be a sort of criminalisation and media dramatisation. In Italy, there arent even 100 women who wear the niqab, and not even one who wears the burqa, Roberto Hamza Piccard, spokesman for the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy, was quoted by the news agency Ansa as saying. He said such a ban would isolate devout Muslim women, who would not be able to leave their homes.
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