Danish parliament votes to ban veils in public

Denmark has joined France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria in banning the burka, niqab and other face coverings in public.

On Thursday the Danish parliament backed a ban, to come into effect from August 1st, by 75 votes to 30 with 74 absentees. The ban was backed by the ruling liberal-conservative coalition parties, the far-right People’s Party and the opposition Social Democrats.

From August violating the ban will result in a 1,000 kroner (€134) fine for the first offence and up to 10 times that for four or more breaches. The government in Copenhagen insists the law targets face covering in general and is not aimed at any religion. It does not outlaw headscarves, turbans or the traditional Jewish Kippa. Ahead of the vote, justice minister Søren Pape Poulsen said Danish police would not forcibly remove veils from women. "I do not want police officers pulling items of clothing off people – burkas or otherwise," he told the Politiken daily. "That is not going to happen."

Instead the woman will be asked to go home, if she lives nearby, or brought to a police station to be collected by a family member.

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The Danish People’s Party, campaigning for a ban for a decade, had proposed prison sentences for breaching the bill, but this was removed from the final draft. It said the veils were “incompatible with Danish culture and the foundations on which Denmark is built” and that it was “always Danish to protect Denmark”.

In 2011 France became the first European country to legislate against face coverings in public and Austria the most recent country to follow suit last October. The Austrian ban, forcing people to show their face from forehead to chin, was loosened during the winter. Police were told to be more lenient towards people covering up against the cold. A similar provision exists in the new Danish law.

No recent figures exist over how many women actually wear the burka or niqab in Denmark. The most recent figures, from 2010, show a maximum of 200 women wearing the niqab, the full veil with a slit for the eyes, and the burka, a full veil with a mesh screen for the eyes.

Human rights groups were critical of the ban, saying it went beyond what was needed for public safety and would exclude some Muslim women from public life.

“All women should be free to dress as they please and to wear clothing that expresses their identity or beliefs,” said Ms Gauri van Gulik, Europe director of Amnesty International. “The law criminalises women for their choice of clothing and in so doing flies in the face of those freedoms Denmark purports to uphold.”