Spain’s Parliament rejected a proposal to ban women from wearing in public places Islamic veils that reveal only the eyes.
However, the Socialist government has said it favours including a ban on people wearing burqas in government buildings in an upcoming bill on religious issues to be debated after Parliament’s summer vacation break. Following a lower chamber debate on Tuesday, 183 legislators opposed the ban, 162 voted for it and two abstained.
The non-binding proposal had been put forward by the leading Opposition Popular Party, which portrayed it as a measure in support of women’s rights. The ruling Socialist Party opposed the ban. “It is very difficult to understand how it is that our troops are defending liberty in Afghanistan and the government doesn’t have the courage to do so here, in Spain,” said Opposition spokeswoman Soraya Saenz de Santamaria in Parliament.
The Opposition’s proposal followed discussions in several other European countries on possibly banning face veils that show only a woman’s eyes, or their eyes through a knitted mesh. Nations like France, Belgium and Switzerland have struggled to balance their national identities with growing Muslim populations with cultural practices that clash with their own. In Spain, the PP had put forward the proposal “in defence of the dignity and equality of all women” and to prevent Muslim women from being forced into wearing unwanted garments such as veils by their husbands.
Some analysts had interpreted the proposal as an Opposition ploy to build their party’s strength amid the economic turmoil and dismal growth prospects that have dogged the government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.