Lose the veil or lose the vote.

Less than a month after a young girl was kicked out of a soccer game in Quebec because of her refusal to remove her hijab, the province has recently announced that Muslim women who are wearing niqabs, a form of veil that covers their face, will not be allowed to vote in today’s elections.
Quebec’s elections chief Marcel Blanchet originally allowed voters to wear their face covering if they signed a sworn statement and showed identification when at the polls, but reversed his decision on Friday, stating that it was “necessary to avoid disruptionsâ€? on election day.
These “disruptions� were among threatening calls and emails Blanchet had received leading him to get bodyguards, including some residents’ claims that they would show up at the polls with masks on in protest.
It’s just infuriating that at the first sign of opposition (and by a bunch of xenophobes, no less), Blanchet not only backs down but changes the language in the electoral laws to make the ruling permanent. Could it get much worse?
Zuzu at Feministe has more.