Netherlands vetoes the burka in schools and government offices – Correo del Caroni

■ El País

Amsterdam .- The Dutch government decided to ban the use of the full veil in certain public places. The measure, which vetoes the burka, which even cover the eyes with a grid structure and the niqab, which hides the entire body except the eyes, has been reduced in scope and will only affect transportation, education, health and government buildings .

Women who persist in getting you there will be fined 405 euros. In practice, the Executive, left center, estimates that few sanctions will be imposed for just a hundred women wear the burqa in the country; has not given many details used niqab.

“It’s very important to see the faces of people in schools. If a mother picks up her son in the backyard, make sure that it is, “said Ronald Plasterk, Minister of Interior. The Government argues that security is essential in the public service and that citizens should also feel safe.

The full veil is prohibited “in specific situations where it is essential to see people,” he said at a conference Press Prime Minister Mark Rutte. “The bill will not have any religious character,” he said.

On the street, the rule will not apply, but the police themselves may request a covered woman who unveils his face if deemed necessary identification . Judges or state officials in uniform, whether soldiers or security forces, can not wear a head covering.

The opposition criticized the decision as “a form of symbolic politics useless when there are only a few Women with burka “, according to liberals. The Dutch government already tried to ban the full veil in 2012. The agreement reached also delete it from the streets, but criticism of then forced to back down. Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-Muslim leader, has spent years trying to eradicate the full veil on the national scene.

Netherlands is the first country in the EU to legislate on the full veil. France banned its use in public places in 2011. Last year, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg upheld the law in finding that “the face plays an important role in social interaction” and to take her covered in public places can be a “threat to coexistence.”