More than a year after the introduction of the burqa ban, zero fines have been issued. However, police officers and municipal officials have issued a total of four warnings. De Volkskrant writes this on the basis of data from the National Police that the newspaper has requested on the basis of the Government Information (WOB) Act.
The warning interviews were conducted at the end of 2019 in a bus, a train, a town hall and the hospital. That was shortly after the law was introduced last August. The last registration dates according to the newspaper of October 15, 2019. Critics previously said the law is mostly symbolic and will not be enforced in practice.
Annelies Moors, professor of Muslim societies at the UvA, among others, called the ban “a solution to a problem that does not exist”. “Nobody in the sectors concerned, such as education and health, says there is a problem. So such a measure is not necessary at all,” she told last year. News hour.
Several hundred carriers
The Partial Prohibition of Face Covering Clothing Act, popularly known as the burqa ban, prohibits facial covering in government buildings, public transport, education and healthcare. This applies not only to burkas and nikabs, but also to full-face helmets and balaclavas.
People should be able to look at each other in those places, says the government. For critics, the law was primarily intended to restrict the religious freedom of Muslims. The law was bickering for 15 years before it was introduced.
In the Netherlands it is estimated that between 150 and 400 women wear a burqa or niqab. Exact figures are not known.
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