A law that forbids any kind of full-face covering, including Islamic veils such as the niqab or burqa, has come into force in Austria.
Starting Sunday, wearing a ski mask off the slopes, a surgical mask outside hospitals, and party masks in public is prohibited.
The law, popularly known as the “Burqa Ban,” is mostly seen as a directed at the dress worn by some ultra-conservative Muslim women. Only a small number of Muslim women in Austria wear full-face veils, but they have become a target for right-wing groups and political parties.
France and Belgium have similar laws. The nationalist Alternative for Germany party is calling for one there as well.
The Austrian law — called "Prohibition for the Covering of the Face" — forbids off-slope ski masks, surgical masks outside hospitals and party masks in public. But its popular name, Burqa Ban, reflects the most prevalent association — the garments some Muslim women wear to conceal their whole faces and bodies. The garments are rare in Austria, even after the recent surge of migrants into Europe. Support for the law, nonetheless, is strong, reflecting the anti-Muslim attitudes in the predominantly Catholic country.
Five in seven of those who said they backed the law, also said they will vote for the two parties that critics link to anti-Muslim sentiment — the traditionally xenophobic Freedom Party and the People's Party.
Muslim women leaders see as insincere the claim the law is intended to help oppressed women.
The ‘handful” of fully veiled women in Vienna are now criminalised and restricted to their homes. This open society is, in a hypocritical way, endangering its own values.Carla Amina Bhagajati, Islamic Religious Community of Austria
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