The Dutch cabinet on Friday approved a proposal to ban burqas or niqabs (face-covering Islamic veils) in public places, including on public transportion, hospitals, schools and government buildings.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the ban would apply to wearing burqas on the street or 'in specific situations where it is essential for people to be see,' the Guardian reported. However Dutch Prime Minister insisted that the legislation was not religiously motivated.
"It has nothing to do with religion or what people do in their own homes," Rutte said, according to Associated Press.
The proposal, moved by Interior Minister Ronal Plasterk, will be sent to a panel of legal advisers for assessment.cThe government believes the ban is important for people's safety, Interior Minister Ronal Plasterk said, according to broadcaster RTL Nieuws.
"Burqas can still be used in public, but flouting the ban may result in a 405 euro fine. "In schools, people need to be able to look each other in the eye," Plasterk said, according to DPA news agency.
The ruling coalition between the Rutte's People's Party for Freedom (VVD) and Labour Party agreed on the proposal; however, opposition parties denounced the move and called it purely symbolic politics.
A VVD MP Sjoerd Potters said burqas have no place in the Netherlands. "If you have your face covered with a full face helmet, balaclava or burqa, you're shut off to another. Many people feel unsafe in there. And it is also unsafe because you do not know who you're dealing with," he said to RTL Nieuws
"If you stubbornly refuses to change a little and participate in our society, then you have some explaining to do. We do not accept," Potters said.
DPA reports that nearly 150 women living in the Netherlands wear a burqa. France became first country to ban burqas under then President Nicolas Sarkozy.
