Norway Plans to Ban Face Veils in Schools and Universities

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/world/europe/norway-veil-burqa-schools.html

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OSLO, Norway — Norway aims to ban face-covering veils in kindergartens, schools and universities, the government said on Monday.

It follows other European governments in proposing restrictions on wearing the burqa and niqab. France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Bulgaria and the German state of Bavaria have all imposed restrictions on wearing full-face veils in public places.

Norway’s minority government, a coalition of the center-right Conservatives and the populist Progress Party, said it was confident it would find opposition support for the move.

“We have every reason to believe this will be approved by Parliament,” the education minister, Torbjorn Roe Isaksen, said.

Norway, which will hold elections on Sept. 11, would be the first Nordic country to introduce a ban on the burqa for both adults and children.

“Face-covering garment such as the niqab or burqa do not belong in Norwegian schools,’’ the acting minister of immigration and integration, Per Sandberg, said at a news conference. “The ability to communicate is a basic value.”

Employees who insist on wearing a veil would risk losing their jobs, and students could face expulsion from college, he added.