Switzerland Set To Approve ‘Burqa Ban’ On Sunday

SWITZERLAND looks set to approve a ‘burqa ban’ as voters hit the polls on Sunday

The polls are predicting a comfortable win on Sunday, March 7 for the campaign led by the far-right Swiss People’s Party to ban the wearing of full face coverings in public places in Switzerland. Although the Swiss government has urged people to vote ‘no’ in the referendum, claiming it will damage tourism, the so-called ‘burqa ban’ is expected to be passed in a landslide.

‘In Switzerland, our tradition is that you show your face. That is a sign of our basic freedoms,’ said Walter Wobmann, an SVP member of parliament.

Wobmann claimed the vote was not against Islam itself, but added that ‘the facial covering is a symbol for this extreme, political Islam which has become increasingly prominent in Europe and which has no place in Switzerland.’

While Muslims make up 5.2 per cent of the population of Switzerland, the government has argued that relatively few people choose to wear the face coverings; those that do are usually tourists in the country for a limited amount of time; in fact, the University of Lucerne estimated that there are only 30 women in the entire country who regularly wear a niqab while none of them wear a burqa.

Rifa’at Lenzin, 67, a Swiss Muslim woman, said that a ban on certain items of clothing was nothing short of racist.

‘Changing the constitution to tell people what they can and cannot wear is a very bad idea.. This is Switzerland, not Saudi Arabia.’

‘We are Muslims but we are Swiss citizens who have grown up here too,’ Lenzin said. ‘This vote is simply racist and Islamophobic.’

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