When the discussion about burqas distorts the focus of women’s rights in Portugal, look at the facts

The context and the diversion of attention from what is really a problem

Over the last few days, there has been a lot of talk about burqas, Islam and prejudice against religion. I remember that the proposal approved this Fridayalthough it prohibits “only the use of clothing designed to hide the face in public spaces in Portugal” — that is, the burqa and the niqab —, it could mark the beginning of the fight against Islam which, in my opinion, goes against the right to religious freedom (and I reinforce the word “freedom” here, the context of which will be explained throughout this article). According to the approved law, the objective will be to prohibit the use of “clothing intended to hide or obstruct the display of the face”. Now, even though it is not explicit, anyone who thinks can understand who it is intended for. In fact, the very Imam of the Central Mosque of Lisbon accused the politicians responsible for approving this law of “covering the eyes of the Portuguese”, as they are diverting the resolution of the country’s real problems.

Religious family heritage and free will

We think that ours culture is the right one and the of others is wrong is a type of reasoning that is both lacking in empathy and colonialist: it is making value judgments without knowledge of the facts.

Did those who created the law and approved the law consult the Muslim community in Portugal? Did you listen to Muslim women? Did you care about understanding their traditions? This doesn’t mean that I’m for or against the wearing of burqas, because, after all, I don’t know anything about what it’s like to be Muslim, but I know what it’s like to be born with a religious family heritage.

(Of course, when we are talking about cultural traditions we must consider that there are those that are harmful, as is the case with Female Genital Mutilation and bullfighting — not to equate the situations, they are just two examples of harmful traditions.)

When I was a child, having grown up in a traditional, Catholic family, I asked my mother a lot of questions about religion, who always answered me bluntly. I distinctly remember her once telling me: “You are Catholic, because you were born into a Catholic family. If you had been born into a Muslim family, you would be a Muslim.” This answer is well etched in my memory, because it really puts the religion card and the free will card on the table: will we really be free in our choice regarding religion, or will there always be some type of coercion involved? Whether it comes from the family or from the environment in which we are socially inserted. Now, I am not going to present an answer to this question, but I will say that Prohibiting someone from professing their faith in a non-violent way is as wrong as forcing someone to profess it in a specific way; and inferring that something is not correct without really trying to understand its practice also seems to me to be at least reductive and unfair.

Let us look, for example, at the testimony of Djelma Fatijournalist, living in Portugal for around three years, who states that she freely wears the hijab. For Djelma, the hijab “does not represent any oppression or subjugation of Muslim women”, but rather a way for Muslim women “to show modesty and chastity”. If a woman, free to express her opinion, chooses, and I repeat, chooses, to wear a hijab (a scarf that covers the ears, hair and neck), who am I to say whether it oppresses women or not? It is as wrong to prohibit as to force its use, as the issue here is bodily autonomy and freedom of choice.

Considering that there may actually be women forced to always wear a burqa, this law now approved will further isolate them, as they may not have the freedom to leave the house, making them more likely to be victims of domestic violence.as also stated Paula Cosme Pinto. (Also, speaking of crimes, since it is common to talk about the issue of public security when addressing the issue of wearing burqas, I would ask you to send me data on crimes in Portugal committed by people wearing burqas.)

The journalist also states that the approval of this law, in her opinion, could even lead to Muslims being “forced to leave the country or find another way to continue living”. Now, taking into account the Islamophobia typical of right-wing forces, isn’t that really what they want? This approved law could even mark the explicit beginning of a xenophobic fight over those who do not have the Catholic cultural heritage of this country that falsely claims to be secular.

When the discussion about burqas distorts the focus of women’s rights in Portugal

When addressing the issue of covering one’s face, those who did not grow up with the cultural heritage of Islam often end up making comments that always end on the same topic: women’s freedom and women’s rights.

From my point of view, we have to take into account that people grow up in families from which they inherit a religious tradition, or lack thereof. It is up to each person to continue with this tradition, give it a new meaning or break it completely. It is up to all people in power to ensure that there is freedom for all three options. For example, Catholic tradition dictates that the sacrament of baptism must be performed on a baby, that is, babies, without their consent, are initiated on a Catholic path, whether they later want to continue it or not. According to Catholic doctrine, people are also invited to chastity, charity and modesty. Now, the way of professing the Faith of the Catholic Church and Islam are different, although they touch on many issues. The big, huge difference is that currently there is no political movement that has taken Catholic doctrine and distorted it to the extreme in order to control women, as the Taliban did with Muslim doctrine — which no longer has anything to do with religion, but rather with control.

Having been born into a family with a Catholic tradition, a doctrine that traumatized me in different ways as I grew up, I can say that, in my opinion, all religions have at their center an issue of moral control of the population, which causes me immense confusion. For this reason, I gave a new meaning to my Faith and separated it well from the institution of the Church. Still, I wonder if I would even have it if I didn’t have a religious family heritage. If, on the one hand, I am aware of the therapy I needed to free myself from the doctrine of Catholic guilt, on the other hand, I also know the importance of free will in this path of Faith, religion, and how to profess it.

Returning to Islam and the way Muslims profess their Faith, when the discussion on the use of burqas in Portugal focuses on women’s rights, I invite you to look at the data on the violence that really affects women in Portugal.

When the discussion about burqas distorts the focus of women’s rights in Portugal

Let’s look effectively at the national panorama of women’s safety in Portugal. According to the CIG Violence Portalin 2025, in the first quarter, there were 7056 reported cases of domestic violenceand in the second quarter there were 7,713. Last year, 30,086 cases were reported (not to mention those for which there is no record). As for fatal victims of violencein the first two quarters of this year, 11 women and 2 men were murdered. In 2024, there are records of homicides of 19 women and 3 men.

As for the safety and health of pregnant women, 57 babies have already been born in ambulances in 2025 alone, mainly on the south bank of the Tagus, due to closed emergency rooms. This, without counting thepregnant woman who had her baby on the floor of Gaia’s emergency room ea woman who gave birth on the sidewalk on Rua do Carregado due to lack of proper medical follow-up. Now, I ask you, is this country’s problem in relation to women’s rights really the burqa? I don’t think so. In fact, taking into account that the current political force, supposedly, does not care about power minorities, the fact that it is so concerned about such a residual proportion of women who wear burqas in Portugal, seems to me to be of questionable morality. If they care so much about the country’s women, where are the reinforcements of state programs dedicated to creating mechanisms to reduce domestic violence and femicides? Where are the captivating proposals for health professionals to dedicate themselves to the NHS? Where are the efforts to guarantee open obstetric emergencies across the country?

If you really want to defend women’s rights, look at the country around you. The conversation shouldn’t be about burqas (of such rare use in Portugal)but about official data on violence against women in Portugal.