Germany faces up to burqa controversy

BERLIN: German chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives have agreed Muslim women should be banned from wearing the face veil in schools and universities and while driving.

The move follows an influx last year of more than one million, mainly Muslim, refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and rising public concern after two radical Islamist attacks and a shooting rampage by a mentally unstable teenager.

Regional interior ministers belonging to Merkel’s Christian Democrats and her Christian Social Union allies will later present a declaration on tougher security measures, including greater surveillance in public areas.

Among the more controversial proposals is a call for a partial ban on the burqa and niqab garments, saying they show a lack of integration, suggest women are inferior and could pose security risks.

“We unanimously reject the burqa, it does not fit with our liberal-minded society,” Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said yesterday. However he stopped short of proposing an outright ban.

“We have agreed that we want to make it a legal requirement to show your face in places where it is necessary for the cohesion of our society,” he said.

For example, women should be forced to show their face while driving, when they register with authorities, in schools, universities, in public office and in court, he said.

The proposals must be adopted by the government before they can become law. The debate over a ban on the face veil has divided Merkel’s ruling coalition, with her Social Democrat partners largely against the demands.

Germany is home to nearly four million Muslims, about 5 percent of the population.

A study carried out by the Federal Office for Migration in 2009 found more than twothirds of Muslim women in Germany did not even wear a headscarf. – Reuters