Italy: Meloni Proposes Burka Ban

Giorgia Meloni has called for a ban on the burka and niqab in public places in Italy.

The prime minister’s ruling Brothers of Italy party put forward a bill imposing fines of between $346 and $3,460 for wearing the face-covering garments in schools, universities, shops and offices.

The party called it a bill against “Islamic separatism” aimed at combating “religious radicalisation and religiously motivated hatred”.

It introduces criminal penalties for virginity testing, while strengthening punishment for forced marriages by adding religious coercion as grounds for prosecution.

The legislation also imposes transparency rules on the funding of Islamic and other religious organisations who have not reached formal agreements with the Italian state.

No Muslim organisations currently have such agreements, meaning they would have to disclose all funding sources, with financing restricted to entities that pose no threat to state security.

Meloni’s Right-wing coalition government has a strong majority. The bill, which was proposed on Wednesday, is expected to pass but there is no timetable yet.

The burka is a full-body garment that covers a woman from head to foot, including a mesh screen over the eyes. The niqab is a veil for the face that leaves the area around the eyes clear.

Some regions of Italy already impose restrictions, such as northern Lombardy, which imposed a ban on entering public buildings and hospitals with covered faces in late 2015.

Meloni’s coalition partner, the League, presented more limited legislation focusing on face coverings earlier this year. It is currently under review in a parliamentary commission. Whether it would merge with this new bill was unclear.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Meloni said that she and two of her ministers had been reported to the International Criminal Court for alleged complicity in genocide in connection with Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

“I don’t believe there is another case like this in the world or in history,” she said.

Italy has seen a string of demonstrations over the past week, bringing hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets to protest against the mass killings in Gaza, with many criticising the prime minister.

France was the first European country to introduce a blanket nationwide ban on wearing burkas in public in 2011.

Since then more than 20 states have some form of the ban on the burka and other full-face coverings in public, including Austria, Denmark, Tunisia, Belgium, Turkey, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

The European Court of Human Rights has consistently upheld these bans, including in 2017, when it upheld Belgium’s ban, ruling that states may restrict such garments to protect “living together” in society.

In June, Sir Keir Starmer rejected calls from a Reform UK MP for a burka ban in Britain. Reform leader Nigel Farage later said the burka was “anti-British” and called for a national debate on the issue.