Bulgaria To Ban The Burqa

Bulgaria has joined several other European countries in banning the burqa or any other full face covering for anyone out in public. If women don't comply they face a hefty fine and loss of their benefits.

The Bulgarian parliament approved the law, backed by the nationalist Patriotic Front coalition. The party’s co-leader Krasimir Karakachanov said the law would improve security, saying: “the burqa is more a uniform than a religious symbol”.

Women who break the law will face fines of up to €770 or £665, as well as a suspension of social security benefits.

The law, however, has its many detractors.

[snip] the Movement for Rights and Freedoms party, which opposed the bill, walked out of the chamber in protest.

In a statement, Amnesty International UK condemned the ban. John Dalhuisen, Europe Director of the human rights organisation, said: “Women in Bulgaria should be free to dress as they please and to wear the burqa or the niqab as an expression of their identity or beliefs. This ban violates their rights to freedom of expression and religion.

“This law is part of a disturbing trend of intolerance, xenophobia and racism in Bulgaria.

“Legitimate security concerns can be met with targeted restrictions on the complete covering of the face in well-defined high-risk locations and not through a blanket discriminatory ban such as this.”

Interesting to note, most of the other countries that have imposed a similar ban- Belgium, France and the Netherlands- have a large Muslim population, many of whom refuse to integrate. Of the 7.1 million people who live in Bulgaria, 10 percent are Muslim. No doubt, that percentage will increase.

They have their reasons for banning:

Earlier this year, head of the Bulgarian city Pazardjik Rumen Kozhuharov said: “The main thing that motivated and catalysed this [discussions about banning face veils] were the terrorist attacks that happened in European countries and the increasing flow of migrants who entered the country in the past few years.”

Banning a symbol of political Islam, is not xenophobic, racist or intolerant. It's survival. It's not like they're banning the hijab. Full face coverings have no place in modern Western civilization.

Latvia Trying To Ban The Burqa In Response To Influx Of Refugees

We haven't heard much about burqa bans- at least not for quite some years- but Latvia is hoping to join France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Russia, Syria, Chad, Cameroon, Senegal in banning the full face veil in public.  This article on Bustle explains the degree to which they are banned in those countries.

If the government approves, that is, Latvia might finally be going through with it.

Latvia will introduce a ban on the traditional Islamic clothes that cover the face when in public, Latvian Justice Minister Dzintars Rasnacs said on Monday.

"Such a ban will be introduced. The respective draft decision has been already worked out. We chose out of two concepts," the minister told the local LNT television.

"The first is to ban wearing clothes covering face only in certain places, including the state or educational ones. The second is to ban wearing burqa in all public places. The second concept was finally approved," he said.

The ban is yet to be approved by the Latvian government, Rasnacs said. "This ban is needed not to ensure public order and security, but to protect Latvia’s cultural values, our common public and cultural space, and each individual," the politician said.

One of the main reasons is a result of the influx of Muslim refugees.

Estonia and Lithuania are also considering the ban, but not without controversy.  As expected.

Burqa Ban At Factory In Minnesota Prompts Somalis To Walk Off Job

Where I live you don't see burqas, hijabs occasionally but not often. And usually the women who don the head scarves are, laughably, wearing those skin tight, trendy jeans. So much for the whole modesty issue.

But Minnesota, apparently, has quite a few burqa-clad women in the Somali community over there, and a bunch of them just walked off their job at Dianne's Fine Desserts in Le Center because of a new burqa ban instituted by new management. And it's not even a total ban, all they want is for the women to wear leggings or pants for safety measures.

Apparently, a week after Mike Knowles bought Dianne's, a Somali worker's long flowing burqa got caught in a boot washer. Nothing happened to the woman, but in order to prevent any future mishaps they decided to make some changes to the dress code: no "unconstrained cloth below the knees." Shouldn't be a big deal for the Somali women. After all, wearing pants doesn't show skin, and the pants needn't be skin tight. But no deal. They want to be able to wear their burqas, not pants or leggings under company issued skirts.

Shamso Ali is a female Somali Muslim who works at Dianne's factory. She told the Faribault Daily News that as she prepared to begin her shift Monday morning while wearing a burqa, a manager approached her and told her to go change.

"I could not believe it was happening," Ali said. "They asked, 'Will you go change your skirt?' I said, 'No, I cannot.' 'Well, then you need to leave,' they said."

Ali eventually joined 10 other Somali women and about 20 Somali men in walking off the job.

Asher Ali, leader of the Somali Community Center in Faribault, characterized the company-issued skirts as "extremely high, they are way up there... It's like something a model would wear."

Dianne's is complying with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's dictates regarding accommodating the religious beliefs and practices of employees by allowing them to continue to wear the veil. All they are asking is for the women to not wear skirts below the knee, for the safety of all involved. And the company has every right to save itself from potential law suits if a worker gets into an accident.

Knowles, referring to the burqa-caught-in-boot washer incident, said, "when there's a safety incident like that you can't just ignore it... We addressed the safety issue by saying no skirts below the knee but that workers could wear slacks or pants and tuck them into their boots."

Regarding the 30 or so who walked off, Knowles said:

"People can't just walk off the job."

Which means they might not get to keep those jobs. Let's hope he doesn't cave, because I smell a CAIR lawsuit.

NOTE: They are actually referring to a niqab, not a burqa, since you can actually see their eyes.