Germany may soon ban full-face veils worn by Muslim women

Germany may soon ban full-face veils worn by  Muslim women in certain circumstances, the latest instance of a European nation restricting Muslim garb.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said in a televised speech that a full veil “does not belong in our cosmopolitan country,” Agence France-Presse reported Friday.

“We agree that we reject the burqa (a full-body covering), we agree that we want to introduce a legal requirement to show one’s face in places where it is necessary for our society’s co-existence — at the wheel, at public offices, at the registry office, in schools and universities, in the civil service, in court,” he said, according to AFP.

He said, “We want to show our faces to each other, and that is why we agree that we reject this — the question is how we put this into law.”

De Maizière’s comments come after a number of seaside towns in France, including Cannes, banned the burkini ­— a full-body swimsuit. At least four women have been fined for wearing burkinis in Cannes since the ban was introduced  this month.

Michel Py, the mayor of Leucate on the southern French coast, which includes a nude beach resort at Port-Leucate, announced a ban on burkinis this week.

“It is about respecting the principle of secularism,” said Py, a member of the right-wing Les Républicains party, according to The Telegraph. “This is the public domain, and (the burkini) is an ostentatious religious sign.”

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said  Wednesday that burkinis were “not compatible with the values of the French Republic,” but he refused to introduce a nationwide ban.

France  has a nationwide ban against full-face veils, as does Belgium. Some cities in Spain and Italy also have such bans.

The local French burkini bans came in response to a terror attack in the beach resort of Nice last month that killed 85 people. The Islamic State said the attacker acted on its behalf.

Historian Jean Baubérot said the bans on burkinis appeared to be “extremely irrational.”

“It’s a counterproductive measure to bother these women who have nothing to do with the terrorists and to give the impression of stigmatizing a whole group of people who are also under threat from terrorism, because there were women wearing headscarves who were also killed in the attack on Nice,” he told the France Inter radio station.