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Italian police fine Muslim woman over burka
[Al Arabiya Latest] Italian police fined a Muslim woman for wearing a full Islamic veil in a street in the northern city of Novara; possibly the first such incident in Italy, city officials said Tuesday."City police ticketed her last night and she will have to pay a 500-euro ($650) fine," Mauro Franzinelli of the Novara municipal police told AFP. "As far as I know this is a first in Italy," he said adding that the woman could appeal. Novara, in Italy's northeastern Piedmont region, is a stronghold of the anti-immigration Northern League, a key party in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government. The woman, a Tunisian national, was stopped by police officers outside a post office in the company of her husband. When her husband refused to have her identified by male officers they called in a patrol comprising a woman officer. "City hall adopted a decree in late January banning the burka in public places and their vicinity, which is based on a commentary by the interior ministry who received a copy of the draft," said Franzinelli, who is also a local Northern League official. France's pro-government newspaper Le Figaro said Friday that France will jail and impose huge fines on anyone who forces a Muslim woman to wear a full-face veil, as well as fining the wearer. While women will face a 150-euro penalty if they choose to don a burka or a niqab, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to slap one-year prison terms and 15,000-euro ($20,000) fines on those who make others wear them. Sarkozy decided this month to opt for a total ban on the full-face veil, despite warnings from the State Council, France's top administrative body, that the law could be struck down as unconstitutional. There has been a fierce debate in France, home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority of between five and six million, with supporters of a ban arguing that veils are a sign of creeping fundamentalism that must not be allowed to take hold. Neighbouring Belgium on Thursday became Europe's first country to vote for a ban. Belgian lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to make covering the face in public a jailable offence, prompting dismay among Muslims and warnings of a dangerous precedent. Posted by: Fred 2010-05-05 |
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