There are no burqas on the streets of Tarrés. In fact, there are no Muslims at all in this village of 108 inhabitants in north-east Spain. But that will not stop the parish council debating whether to ban burqas and face-covering niqabs from parts of the village next week. "It is true that there are no Muslims living in the village now, but this would be a preventive measure in case they come," said parish councillor Daniel Rivera, from the tiny and openly xenophobic Partit per Catalunya. Rivera's motion to ban burqas has outraged many. Other councillors plan to vote against it, but whatever the result, the motion is symptomatic of wider moves in the Catalonia region to ban Islamic veils from public buildings. Today the nearby provincial capital, Lleida, formally passed a ban that was first announced in May. Women found wearing burqas in public buildings will first be given a warning, but any repeat will lead to a fine of between €300 and €600 (£250-£500).
From Barcelona to Tarragona, bans are being slapped into place across the region. "At this rate we will end up with more bans than burqas," said the immigration minister, Celestino Corbacho, himself a former town mayor in Catalonia. The Lleida ban was not passed by the anti-immigrant parties but, as in Barcelona, by a socialist-led council. "This is about equality between men and women," Mayor Ángel Ros said. "The burqa and the niqab are symbols of the political use of a religious dogmatism that had begun to appear in Lleida. "This is not Islamophobia. When the right does this it is guided by xenophobia, but we are guided by equality. The debate was already out there on the street. It is our job to listen." Ros would have liked an outright ban on burqas in public, but was advised that the town hall's powers did not stretch that far. "This is an example of integration, in which they respect the values of our society. Some cultural behaviour is a direct attack on our values."
Conservative opposition parties – including the Convergence and Union coalition, which looks set to win regional elections in the autumn – had been pushing for an even stricter ban. After Lleida's announcement, Spain's senate called on the government to prevent women from wearing burqas and niqabs anywhere in public. The motion was phrased to avoid the ban applying to the tens of thousands of Christian nazarenos who don hooded robes and parade through Spanish cities every Easter. The socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has responded by indicating that it will legislate against the burqa in a religious freedom law. Ros said the ban was a warning to some local imams who he says are driving people towards fundamentalism. On Nord street in Lleida, where halal butchers service the needs of the 29,000 immigrants who make up 21% of the city's population, there was dismay. "Catalan elections are coming up," said Abderrahim Boussira, at the Western Union store. "Election time is when they go after the foreigners and the Muslims. I've been here 20 years and I have never seen a woman in a burqa."
At middaytoday, more than 1,000 men packed into a makeshift mosque for Friday prayers. Imam Abdelwahad Houzi is the man Ros blames for radicalising local Muslims. "All we do is follow the Qur'an and the Sunna. We are not a sect or a political party and we have been here for years," he said. "We feel offended. This is an attack on the freedom of women." Houzi blames the local Segre newspaper for whipping up anger. The newspaper said it started covering the story only after conservative politicians complained about them, though its editorials also called for a ban. "Islam, which barely distinguishes politics from religion, still marginalises the female sex," its deputy editor, Anna Goméz, wrote. It is thought that barely half a dozen women in Lleida wear niqabs. "Some are Spaniards," said Khadija Rabhi, at her general store, which sells everything from haberdashery to hair oil to Muslim women. "I don't think they are forced to wear them by their husbands, though. How could they be? I don't wear one, but I cannot see why they should stop someone who does."
Like most women in the mainly Moroccan and Algerian immigrant community, Rabhi – who has lived in Lleida since she was seven – wears a hijab headscarf and a loose-fitting robe. "The Qur'an says we should dress modestly. But people have different interpretations. I wear a headscarf, and if I was not allowed to wear it, I would prefer to move to Morocco – even though Lleida has always been my home." Ros claims some Muslim groups support the ban, but a town hall list turned up no backers. Mourad el-Boudouhi, of the local Averroes Association, said his group had lodged a complaint claiming the measure contradicted Spain's constitution. There has been a second complaint against the senate motion, with the aim of taking it through to Spain's constitutional court. "No one has the right to decide for a woman what she must wear," he said. "They are adults and can decide for themselves. We will defend them if they decide to wear it and if they decide not to. This creates hatred. People come here to work, to get by, or to live in democracy – not in dictatorship."
Abdelraffie Ettalydy, head of the Maghrebia immigrants' association and a critic of Imam Houzi, said that the few women in Lleida who wear niqabs – which are slowly disappearing from his native Morocco – were rarely seen. "It is not as if everyone in Lleida was worried about this," he said. "In five years, I have only bumped into one of these women once." He blames the imam for failing to talk with a town hall that has offered land for a new and bigger mosque. "I can't call them fundamentalists, but they are not open-minded," he said. "They are simple people who say: 'We are Muslims, so we are better than them'. That is why the mosque has become a problem for the city, and now for Catalonia and Spain as well." Racist parties are crowing. "Measures we proposed three or four years ago that were greeted with cries of 'racism' are now being passed by town halls," said Joan Terré, a town councillor for Partit per Catalunya in Cervera.
Back in Tarrés, waiter Arnau Galí said the bans made little sense. "Not so long ago all the old women in Tarrés wore headscarves too, but they have disappeared without anyone banning them," he said. "The problem here has always been emigration, not immigration." In the meantime, niqab wearers in Lleida and elsewhere must change or they will be unable to get crucial paperwork done at the town hall – a building they are banned from entering. "If she cannot go out like this then she will change," the husband of the only niqab-wearer in the Catalan town of Cunit, 26-year-old Moroccan Fatima Bumlaqi, told El País newspaper. "Will they fine her if she wears a hat and sunglasses?"
The burqa in Europe
In Belgium a new bill outlawing the wearing of face veils in public is awaiting senate approval. If passed, offenders will be fined or face a week in jail.
France is trying to ban the wearing of full-face Islamic veils in public. President Nicolas Sarkozy has said they oppress women and are "not welcome". An estimated 2,000 women in France wear full veils.
The UK does not ban any form of Islamic dress. Schools are permitted to devise their own uniform policy.
The Netherlands debated banning burqas four years ago and may yet outlaw them.
In Italy, several regions have introduced rules to deter public use of the Islamic veil. Some mayors from the anti-immigrant Northern League have also banned the use of Islamic swimsuits.
The Guardian
