Switzerland’s nationwide ban on facial coverings in public, including burqas, is effective today, 1 January 2025. It follows a narrow victory in a 2021 referendum and aligns Switzerland with the other European nations that have adopted similar restrictions: Austria, Denmark, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Bulgaria.
Needless to say, the ban has sparked controversy and criticism, particularly from Muslim organisations.
The legislation was supported by the Swiss People’s Party and in September 2023 the lower house of parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour, finalising the ban. This legislation builds on previous restrictions, such as the 2009 ban on mosque minaret construction.
The new law prohibits covering the nose, mouth, and eyes in public spaces. Violators may face fines of up to 1,000 Swiss francs, approximately $US 1,144. However, there are notable exceptions. Face coverings will be permitted on airplanes, in diplomatic and consular premises, and in places of worship. Additionally, coverings for health, traditional customs, weather conditions, artistic purposes, and personal protection may be allowed with prior approval.
Thank goodness, stop the rot. One gets the impression that career Muslims and DEI lefties are desperate to impose burqas on us – anything to create self-importance, division and disempowerment. There was a discussion on a UK chat show, and I’m sure the veiled proponent was an Anglo-Saxon try-hard convert. I suspect there are women wearing them in London who wouldn’t have back home. Similarly, a Pakistani engineer told us that his wife had taken to wearing a headscarf here in Wellington, even though back in Pakistan neither his wife, mother-in-law or mother had done so.
They’re mostly a Saudi thing, though I’m told women in the Egyptian oases wear them, which is why I didn’t go out into the desert. I’ve never seen a burqa/veil in Iran, and I’m told they’re banned in Turkey. You do see a few in Istanbul but presumably on foreigners.
There is a fun meme of a shrouded woman standing next to a couple of black rubbish bags, and a man with a text saying, “I don’t know why she was so upset when I congratulated her on her two beautiful children!” I posted it and was accused by a Saudi man of being Islamophobic. Well, tough.
It is basically a Wahabist ultra fundamentalist notion which started in Saudi Arabia and spread to other Arab countries. In Egypt President Nasser made fun of Muslim hijabs in 1958, we posted the video of it in May 2020 — it’s a shame Comrade Jacinda didn’t watch it before she went running around in one, many saw it as patronising and offensive, reflecting the subjugation of women. But she is too much of a Stuffwit to understand that.
It’s easy to understand why covering up developed in very sandy areas like the Gulf and the Sahara. The Tuareg of North Africa were always shown with scarves round their faces. And in the past, not just in the Middle East, women washed their hair less often, so no fun exposing greasy hair to a blast of sandy wind. Saudi men and women both cover their heads.
Ultra-Orthodox (Jewish) women in Israel wear burqas. Apparently a rabbanical authority declared burqas to be a “sexual fetish”, which sounds right. Especially once you have seen burqaed women fingering the very scanty underwear on sale in the Cairo markets.