Portugal has just banned people from concealing their face in public places. This means that it is now illegal for people to cover their face with a face veil such as with a burqa or niqab.
There are a few exceptions such as religious places and for situations justified by reasons such as health reasons or artistic reasons.
In practice, it will be illegal to wear full face veils in virtually all public places ”for reasons of security and public order”. Other aspects for this new law is social integration, social trust and that the ability to recognize each other is indispensable in a democratic and free society.
If anyone is found to intentionally violate this new law, they risk fines of up to €3000.
But it doesn’t stop there. If anyone is found to force someone to conceal their face on the basis of being man or a woman, they can be sentence up to 2 years in prison. This means that if a man forces a woman to wear a burqa or niqab by ”coercion, abuse of authority or abuse of power”, he can be sent to prison for 2 years.If the victim is a minor, the sentence is increased so that the prison sentence could be 2 years and 8 months
This law was originally initiated by the right-wing Chega party. However, the left in Portugal has been strongly opposed to this new law. The Communists claimed that this law will be ”continuing to feed hate speech”. Another leftist party called Livre has accused the right-wing of creating a ”moral panic”. The Socialist party were also strongly opposed to this law.
The right wants to protect women from being forced to cover their face and to protect the democratic and free society. And the left goes into a panic over it.
And Italy plans to ban Islamic face coverings in public
In the latest move from Georgia Meloni’s government in Italy, it is also planning to completely ban people from wearing the burqa and niqab in public places, schools, shops, offices and universities across the country.
Good on Portugal and Italy. These are their countries and they can decide for themselves. Those who disagree should go back to where they came from, or go to those countries that are ok with these face coverings if they are so keen on them.