Italy moves closer to banning face-coverings

Following in suit with Belgium and France, Italy passed a draft law yesterday that entertains the expansion of public safety laws that would ban women from wearing face coverings. It appears that using government to fight religious expression is a continuing trend in the European Union.

via Guardian UK.

The draft, which was passed by the constitutional affairs commission on Tuesday, would prohibit women from wearing a burqa, naqib or any other garment that covers the face in such circumstances. 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.

Similar to the other ban legislation, all lead and developed by conservative party leaders, the language of women’s empowerment is used to justify the bans. The obvious contradiction, of course, of demanding women show or not show their bodies in the name of their own empowerment, is ignored.

I have written much more extensively about this before.

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