greypanther wrote: ↑Fri, 12. Mar 21, 21:27I just want to ask a couple of questions, to satisfy my curiosity.
Why is it only Switzerland that are being accused of being a racist country, when there are several other countries in Europe with a similar ban, some in place for quite a while?
Secondly, seeing that in Denmark, ( for example, ) it was apparently said: the garment is often described as oppressing women and incompatible with Danish values, ( according to Wiki,) why is no one accusing those who voted against the ban, of being sexist? In Denmark it also was not just the Burqa that was banned, but sexism seems to be part of the consideration.
I would consider the potential charge of sexism, to be possible, considering I have seen one Muslim woman having a panic attack, as an Iman approached, shortly after one Ramadan.
I dont talk about other countries because I am not aware of the bans in other countries. But it's a worthy topic.
So, Denmark, let's briefly see
https://www.thelocal.dk/20190801/one-ye ... -23-fines/
A controversial ban on wearing face-masking garments in public, widely referred to as the ‘burqa ban’, came into effect in Denmark on August 1st last year.
Since then, 23 people have been fined under the law, according to National Police figures reported by Kristeligt Dagblad.
The ban came into effect a year ago on Thursday, imposing a fine of 1,000 kroner (134 euros) for first offences on individuals wearing garments including the burqa, which covers a person's entire face, or the niqab, which only shows the eyes, as well as other accessories that hide the face such as balaclavas.
Hundreds of people protested against the ban in Copenhagen and Aarhus on August 1st last year. The Local attended the demonstration which took place in the Nørrebro neighbourhood in the capital and spoke to niqab-wearing women about the law.
...
Broadly, proponents claimed the ban would prevent suppression of women’s rights. When it proposed the law change, the Ministry of Justice said that the burqa and niqab were not “compatible with the values and sense of community in Danish society”.
Critics said that the ban infringed religious freedom – something Denmark’s constitution guarantees – and Amnesty International in 2018 condemned the law as a “discriminatory violation of women's rights”, especially against Muslim women who choose to wear the full-face veils.
The effectiveness the burqa ban is difficult to measure given the low number of fines issued, according to Margit Warburg, a sociologist specializing in religion at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies.
“You can’t say, based on 23 fines, whether the ban works as it was intended. Maybe the (affected) women don’t go out very much? Maybe no-one calls the police? Or it could be because people actually have removed their niqab. In reality, we don’t know,” Warburg told Kristeligt Dagblad.
The number of people who wear the Islamic veil in Denmark is limited to approximately 150-200 niqab wearers, around half of whom are converts to Islam, Warburg estimates. Very few women – perhaps none at all – wear the burqa, according to the researcher, who led a 2009 report on the prevalence of the Islamic veil in the country.
Looks to me it's the same ban as in Switzerland.
The law that penalizes the victims (specifically 123 EUR each; and I bet followed by forceful / involuntary removal of the said clothing).
The law also comes with no way to check if it has a negative or positive affect on anything. A law that cant be checked or does nothing is a useless law. Penalizing people for nothing - makes it a bad law, even before we talk about it being whether it's bigoted.
Plus the same time in Denmark's case, apparently it's claimed to be also unconstitutional (unlike, as I understand in Switzerland's case, where religious freedom isn't guaranteed... or I've not read anything stating otherwise yet on this matter). Yet that's more than 1 year ago, so I assume Denmark's courts either didn't agree or didn't rule, or something else.