The Swiss go to the polls to ban the burqa | Abroad
Switzerland will vote on Sunday to ban clothing that covers the face in public. This is despite the fact that Muslim veiled women are rarely seen on the Swiss streets.
Polls show that a small majority supports this measure. While the phrase “yes or no to ban full face coverings” does not refer to the burqa or niqab, there is no doubt about what the controversy is about.
Campaign posters with the words “Stop Radical Islam!” Proponents of the ban hanged in Swiss cities and “stop extremism!” , Which depicts a woman wearing a black veil. Opponents use the slogan “No to the absurd, futile, and Islamophobic” anti-burqa law.
The ban means that no one should completely cover their face in public. There are exceptions, such as places of worship.
“In addition to being useless, this text is racist and biased against women,” said Enas al-Sheikh, spokeswoman for the Purple Headscarves Muslim Women’s Group. She says the proposed law gives the impression of a problem, but states that “only 30 women in Switzerland wear the burqa.”
Jean-Luc Ador, spokesman for the JA campaign of the right-wing populist Swiss People’s Party, said the full-face veil “is an extreme form of Islam.”
A survey conducted by the Swiss Statistics Office in 2019 found that 5.5% of the population is Muslim. Most of them are from the former Yugoslavia.
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