Amnesty wears the burqa

“We express deep concern at the statements made by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni regarding the ban on wearing the burqa and niqab at school and the need to cap the number of foreign pupils in classes,” comments Amnesty International Italia. “Such proposals, if worded in this way, would be discriminatory and would constitute, on the one hand, a direct threat to the freedoms of expression and religion of pupils attending Italian schools and, on the other, a violation of the right to education enshrined in Article 34 of the Constitution. Proposals such as this risk causing discrimination, exclusion from public life, isolation and difficulties in accessing education.” In the eyes of this once-glorious human rights NGO, Italy is undoubtedly backward and discriminatory. They certainly do not regard Egypt – which has banned the burqa and niqab in schools – as a model. Yet the Netherlands, far more progressive and enlightened, has banned the burqa and niqab in schools. Numerous German federal states, such as Baden-Württemberg – which is certainly not governed by the AfD – have banned the burqa and niqab in schools. France, the home of rights and secularism, has had a law in place for twenty years prohibiting the burqa, niqab and other veils in schools. Austria, too, has a law banning the burqa and niqab in schools. And finally, Portugal. “We condemn the compulsory wearing of the veil in Iran or the burqa in Afghanistan, just as we condemn the ban on wearing the hijab in France or elsewhere,” concludes Amnesty.

Here, they equate the situation in Afghanistan and Iran with that in France and other European countries, where the burqa ban is compatible with the Constitution and deemed legitimate by the European Court of Human Rights. The issue, according to the commentary, lies in the argument put forward by Amnesty and other champions of one-sided humanitarianism, who cloak in the guise of law and tolerance the obscene black veil that covers a woman from head to toe, leaving her, at best, with only her eyes to see just how miserable her world is.