Swiss favour ban in burqas, poll shows
A clear most Swiss voters favour introducing a nationwide prohibition against wearing face-covering garments in public spaces, referred to as a "burqa ban", a poll showed on Friday.
Based on the Tamedia poll of 15,000 eligible voters, a complete 63 every cent of these questioned said they might vote yes or had been considering voting yes within an upcoming popular vote in the ban, the Tages Anzeiger daily reported.
The Swiss are set to vote on whether they want to ban face coverings in public areas on March 7, when they will also vote on a variety of other issues as part of the country's famous direct democratic system.
The text will not mention Muslim veils explicitly, stating only that "no one shall cover their face in public areas, nor in areas accessible to the general public or in areas where services are ordinarily accessible to all or any."
But the proposed ban, which includes been opposed by the Swiss federal government, is widely viewed as targeting burqas and other face-covering Muslim veils.
The initiative also produces several exceptions, including in "places of worship", and, vitally in these pandemic times, for "health reasons."
The Egerkingen committee which presented the initiative is heavily backed by the populist right-wing Swiss People's Party, however, many left-leaning politicians also have joined the campaign in the brand of protecting women's rights.
Swiss Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter declared this week that the government opposed the nationwide ban, stressing that women dressed in full body-covering veils were rarely observed in Switzerland.
She stressed that most women seen in the united states wearing such veils are tourists.
The justice minister also insisted the problem should be left up to Switzerland's 26 cantons.
Two cantons, Ticino and St. Gallen, have previously created such bans, while three different cantons, Zurich, Solothurn and Glarus, have rejected doing so in recent years.
The federal government and parliament are backing a counter proposal, which would require persons to reveal their faces to the authorities for identification purposes, for instance at borders or on public transport.
Fines as high as 10,000 Swiss francs (US$11,300) could possibly be directed at anyone who refused, in line with the counter proposal, that will enter into force if the Egerkingen initiative is rejected. - AFP
