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© Reuters
In a referendum today, the Swiss approved by a small majority the ban on hiding one’s face, a signal against radical Islam according to its supporters, a xenophobic and sexist initiative according to others, reported AFP, quoted by BTA. The text, originally proposed by the populist right-wing Swiss People’s Party, received 51.2% of the vote and the support of the majority of the cantons, according to official results published by the federal government.
The initiative was also supported by feminists and some voters on the secular left. “We are happy. We do not want a radical Islam in our country,” Swiss People’s Party Chairman Marco Chiesa told Blick TV.
The proposal predates the COVID-19 pandemic, in which masks became mandatory. It garnered the necessary support for a referendum in 2017. Islam is not directly mentioned, but it is also directed against aggressive protesters and masked hooligans, but politicians, the media and activists have called it a “burqa ban.”
The text does not mention a burqa, a cloth that covers the head and part of the face, with the eyes hidden behind a mesh cloth, nor a niqab, a cloth that covers the whole body and face with a narrow slit for the eyes. , but the campaign posters left no doubt about the object of the referendum.
“In Switzerland, it is our tradition to be open. This is a sign of our fundamental freedoms,” said Walter Wobmann, chairman of the referendum commission and member of parliament for the Swiss People’s Party. Wobman called the face covering a symbol of extreme political Islam, which is becoming more pronounced in Europe and has no place in Switzerland.
The Swiss Central Council of Muslims called the vote a black day for the community, Reuters reported. Two Swiss cantons already have a local ban on wearing a burqa.
Voting against wearing a full-length veil in public, Switzerland joins France, Austria, Bulgaria, Belgium and Denmark after a lengthy debate, notes AFP.
It will now be forbidden to cover the face in a public place, which also applies to hooded protesters, but exceptions are foreseen, for example, in the presence of religious temples.
The far-right group, which started the referendum on the burqa, organized a poll in 2009 to ban the construction of new minarets, Reuters reported.
The Swiss also voted in favor of a trade deal with Indonesia (52 percent “in favor”), but overwhelmingly rejected the introduction of a federal electronic identity.
