THE LOWER house of the Belgian parliament has voted to forbid the public wearing of face veils, leaving only a senate vote in the way of Europe’s first national ban on Islamic headscarves such as the burqa and niqab.
The collapse of the Belgian government last week means a general election is likely in June so there may be no vote in the senate, as the upper house is known, before parliament is dissolved.
The draft law received near unanimous support in the lower house. The law’s legal phrasing has drawn questions from Christian Democrat and Liberal senators so it could be challenged before its formal reading in the senate.
If it is ultimately endorsed in the senate, as local observers expect, wearers of face veils would be fined between €15 and €25 or imprisoned for between one and seven days. While not specifically banning the burqa and niqab, the law will prohibit such garments by calling for sanctions on those who who present themselves in public with their face hidden or masked, in part or in full.
Muslims form the majority in some areas of Brussels and make up a quarter of the population in the greater city area. However, burqa-wearers are rarely seen on the city’s streets.
The law’s chief sponsor, Daniel Bacquelaine, said the burqa defied the principles of an emancipated society that respects the rights of all. He described the burqa as a “political sign first and foremost” and an affirmation of values contrary to fundamental values.
Human rights groups criticised the vote, saying a complete ban on covering the face would violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion.
John Dalhuisen of Amnesty International said the Belgian move set a dangerous precedent.
“Restrictions on human rights must always be proportionate to a legitimate goal. A total ban on full-face veils would not be.”
Some Belgian towns have already passed municipal bylaws that ban veils and headscarves in public places. Such moves reflect anxiety, widespread in Europe, about the perceived undermining of national identity.
In France, the government plans to jail and impose heavy fines on anyone who forces a Muslim woman to wear a face-covering veil, according to a leaked version of its draft law.
Under the plan, woman who wear the niqab or burqa in a public place would face a fine of €150, but a far more severe €15,000 penalty could be imposed on those who make others wear the veil.
"No one may wear in public places clothes that are aimed at hiding the face," says the text of a draft law that is to be presented to parliament in July, according to a copy seen by the centre-right daily Le Figaro.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy recently ordered his government to table a law that would ban face veils in public, but some legal experts believe this may be deemed unconstitutional. According to the leaked document, the law will create a new offence of “incitement to cover the face for reasons of gender”, which will incur a €15,000 fine and a year in prison.
The government decided to impose a much smaller fine on women caught wearing the veil in public "because these women are often victims", one of the authors of the law told Le Figaro.
Women caught wearing the full veil can choose to attend a “citizenship course” instead of paying the fine, the paper said.