This Saturday, the organization Amnesty International condemned the approval, by the Portuguese parliament, of the Chega bill, which provides for the prohibition of hiding one’s face in public spaces, considering that it is discriminatory and violates women’s rights.
“A proposal is discriminatory and violates women’s human rights who choose to wear a veil to cover their face”, says the organization in a statement released today.
On Friday, the Portuguese parliament approved, in general, the Chega party’s bill to ban the use of burqas and other veils that hide the face in public spaces, citing women’s rights and security issues.
For Amnesty, the application of this measure also has “implications for the right to privacy, the right to freedom of expression and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and demonstration”.
The burqa is not imposed by Islam, says Sheikh Munir
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Reporting that it has serious doubts about the compatibility of this ban with the country’s obligations under international human rights law, Amnesty emphasizes that “no political decision-maker should dictate what a woman can or cannot wear”.
Furthermore, the organization argued, “no woman should be punished for exercising her faith, cultural identity or beliefs”.
For Amnesty International, this ban, “far from defending women’s rights” it violates “the rights of those who choose to wear veils that cover the entire face, while it would do little to protect those who do so against their will, who are at risk of further exclusion or confinement as a result.”
While recognizing that face-covering veils such as ‘burqas’ and ‘niqabs’ can pose safety concerns, Amnesty International suggests that people “may be required to reveal their faces when objectively necessary, for example for identity checks“, remembering that this is already provided for in Portuguese law.
The ban in Portugal on the use of burqas and other veils that cover women’s faces in public spaces follows a trend that has been adopted in more than 20 countries in recent years, initiated by France in 2011.
These countries, which include Spain, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, among others, commonly justify the decision with the need to protect secular values, combat religious extremism or for reasons of public security.
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