Dutch Parliament Passes Limited Ban On Burqa, Niqab

One far-right Dutch politician said the next step is to "close all the mosques in the Netherlands."
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The Netherlands has passed a partial ban on face veils in certain public places, ceding to a decadeslong push from the country’s far-right, anti-Muslim figures.

The Dutch parliament’s upper chamber passed a law Tuesday that bans people from wearing clothing that covers the face ― including the Islamic burqa and niqab ― in government buildings, schools, hospitals, and on public transport.

An influx of migrants, including a significant number of Syrian refugees, has contributed to a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment in the Netherlands, which now joins other European countries that have instituted restrictions on women wearing face veils in public places. France, Belgium, Austria and Denmark have passed laws imposing fines and, in some cases, jail time, on women who wear face veils in public.

Geert Wilders is the leader of the Netherlands' far-right Party for Freedom.
Geert Wilders is the leader of the Netherlands' far-right Party for Freedom.
DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS via Getty Images

The Dutch government says the new law is “religion-neutral,” The Associated Press reports. The ban also applies to ski masks and full-face helmets in these public spaces.

But some far-right politicians who advocated for the ban pointed out its impact specifically on Muslim communities.

Geert Wilders, who leads the nationalist Party for Freedom, referred to the law as a ban on the burqa in a celebratory tweet Wednesday.

Senator Marjolein Faber-Van de Klashorst, a member of the Freedom Party, said the ban was “the first step to de-Islamize the Netherlands.”

“The next step is to close all the mosques in the Netherlands,” she said, according to the AP.

The burqa is a face veil worn by some Muslim women as part of their spiritual practice. It covers the face completely, leaving a net screen for the eyes. The niqab is another type of Islamic veil that leaves the area around the eyes open. Only about 200 to 400 women in the Netherlands wear either a burqa or a niqab, according to Reuters.

Ruard Ganzevoort, a senator for the country’s Green Party, called the law “completely disproportionate.”

“The only effect will be that many of these women will stay at home even more,” Ganzevoort told the AP. “They will not have an opportunity to go to school. They will not have an opportunity to go to learn to swim, and all those things.”

Women wearing full-face veils visit the Dutch Senate on Nov. 23, 2016, in the Hague, the Netherlands.
Women wearing full-face veils visit the Dutch Senate on Nov. 23, 2016, in the Hague, the Netherlands.
STR via Getty Images

The Netherlands’ new law does allow women to wear face veils on public streets, making it less restrictive than burqa bans in other parts of Europe. But Dutch police can ask women to remove the veil for identification purposes, the AP reports.

The European Forum of Muslim Women, a coalition of 17 regional Muslim organizations, condemned the Netherlands’ new law as a “basic infringement of Muslim women’s rights.” Hajar El Jahidi, the group’s advocacy coordinator, told HuffPost she feared the ban could prevent some women from accessing essential services such as health care and university education.

The law also furthers the belief that these women aren’t welcome in parts of Dutch society, she said.

“It sends a message to society that these women aren’t normal and that we have to make special laws for them,” El Jahidi said. “That they are not like us, they’re not like other Dutch citizens.”

El Jahidi, who is based in Brussels, said the majority of European Muslim women don’t choose to wear full-face veils. She believes the burqa bans that have recently emerged in different European countries are an attempt to erase visibly Muslim women from public spaces.

“I think the common ground for all these laws is that people have a problem with Islam and the visibility of Muslim women,” she said. “They don’t even want to see these women in the public sphere.”

This article has been updated with comments from Ruard Ganzevoort and Hajar El Jahidi.

Before You Go

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