From the Guardian website comes a story of a woman in Italy given a fine for wearing the niqab.
The actual law in the Italian case is a local bylaw, and bans "the wearing in public of clothing that prevents identification by police." However, I am willing to place bets that this outcome was in fact the real intention behind the law in the first place - especially as the region is a stronghold for anti-immigration politics in Italy. The Northern League party is pushing for legislation like that in France and Belgium, the Guardian article reports.
The Northern League mayor of Novara said face-covering veils demeaned women. "We cannot accept cultures that destroy women's dignity," Massimo Giordano said in a statement.
I'm willing to go out on a limb here and suggest that fining a woman for wearing the niqab is not in any way, shape or form, helping to preserve her dignity - I would even go so far as to say it serves to undermine it further.
As far as I can see, this is a clear instance where, whatever your views on the veil's role in Islamic cultures, it's possible to say that this is the wrong way to do something about it. This application of the bylaw seems to be a clear example of racism, sexism and Islamophobia.
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