SOURCE: POLITICO

BY: MAGDALIN DUNCAN

Denmark is the latest European country to pass a law banning face veils, outlawing the burqa and niqab worn by some Muslim women.

Parliament voted on Thursday for the law, proposed by the center-right government, by 75 votes to 30, with 74 abstentions. It comes into effect on August 1.

Those who break the law could be fined 1,000 kroner (€134). The law does allow headscarves, turbans and Jewish skull caps to be worn.

Danish national radio reported that people will still be allowed to cover their face in certain circumstances, such as a costume party or pulling up a scarf during cold weather. It will be up to police to decide if a person’s face is “too covered.”

When the bill was proposed earlier this year, Denmark’s Justice Minister Søren Pape Poulsen said covering one’s face was “disrespectful” to others and “incompatible with the values in Danish society.”

In a statement, Amnesty International said a ban was neither “necessary nor proportionate” and accused Denmark of violating freedom of expression and freedom of religion.

“If the intention of this law was to protect women’s rights it fails abjectly,” Amnesty International’s Europe Director Gauri van Gulik said. “Instead, the law criminalises women for their choice of clothing and in so doing flies in the face of those freedoms Denmark purports to uphold.”

The Danish ban follows similar ones in France, Belgium, Bulgaria and parts of Switzerland. A similar law was proposed in Norway’s schools earlier this year.