Dutch Parliament approves limited ban on burqa, niqab
Only a few hundred women in the Netherlands wear face-covering veils, studies suggest.
A woman in front of the Supreme Court in the Hague, the Netherlands. Some rights reserved by Patrick Rasenberg.
The Netherlands has approved a limited ban on “face-covering clothing” in public places, including Islamic veils and robes such as the burqa and niqab—but not the hijab, which covers only the hair. Firebrand politician Geert Wilders had pushed for the ban for over a decade.
Parliament’s upper chamber gave the final approval in a vote June 26.
Wilders’s far-right Party for Freedom claimed the development as a major victory, and Sen. Marjolein Faber-van de Klashorst called it “a historical day because this is the first step to de-Islamize the Netherlands.”
