The deputy prime minister of Sweden has called for a burqa ban ‘while we can’ as she hit out at the country’s ‘failed integration’.
Ebba Busch, leader of the Christian Democrats, said the Scandinavian country should prohibit woman from wearing burqas and niqabs in public, claiming it is an ‘oppression’ that is not welcome.
The veils should be banned in public environments including streets and squares, shopping centres and healthcare facilities, she added.
Local municipalities in Sweden have previously tried to impose restrictions on the burqa, including in schools, but there are currently no restrictions nationwide.
Ms Busch, who also serves as the country’s Minister for Energy and Minister for Business and Industry, said she believes the veils are incompatible with Swedish society and are an ‘expression of a strict interpretation of Islam practiced in totalitarian states such as Iran and Afghanistan’.
‘You should be able to meet for real if you are on the street, if you are shopping in the square, in the Ica store or taking the children to the health center. Then I don’t want to meet someone who has covered their entire face, she told Swedish outlet Aftonbladet.
The proposal would be part of an effort to increase the ‘social cohesion’ in the country which has seen ‘failed integration’.
‘It is the type of very naive liberalism, or lax social policy, that has brought Sweden to the situation we are in today,’ the Ms Busch added.
She said almost 70,000 woman have suffered from female genital mutilation in the nordic nation and that while ‘you are very welcome to be a Muslim in Sweden… you have to adapt if you are already in the country’.
Liberal Party leader Simona Mohamsson, the Minister of Education and Integration, also backed a ban, stating it is important to punish those who ‘practice religious oppresion’ such as compulsory veiling.
Ms Busch has previously called for the banning of hijabs for nursery and primary school children to protect girls rights to their body and education.
The Christian Democrats, who are in coalition with the Liberal Party and Moderate Party, will consider banning burqas and niqabs when they hold their national congress in November.
The proposal comes after Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni called for a burka and niqab ban in public places in Italy with fines of £2,600 to stop ‘Islamic separatism’.
The bill, presented to parliament by the Italian prime minister’s Brothers of Italy party on Wednesday, would see those wearing the garment in shops, offices, schools and universities fined between £260 and £2,600.
It will also introduce criminal penalties for ‘cultural crimes’ including virginity testing and increase punishments for forced marriages to up to 10 years in prison, with religious coercion grounds for prosecution.
The bill will combat ‘religious radicalisation and religiously motivated hate’, the party claims.
‘The spread of Islamic fundamentalism… undeniably constitutes the breeding ground for Islamist terrorism,’ an introduction to the draft legislation said.
France became the first European country to introduce a nationwide ban on burkas in 2011.
Austria, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands have since followed suit and introduced some form of the ban.
The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly upheld the bans, while Nigel Farage has previously branded the veils ‘anti-British’.
