Swiss lawmakers say yes to banning burqa

Switzerland’s lower House on Tuesday narrowly approved a draft Bill on a nationwide burqa ban, the ATS news agency reported, but the measure remains far from coming into force.

The proposal by lawmaker Walter Wobmann of the populist right-wing Swiss Peoples Party (SVP) won 88 votes with 87 against.

The Bill was nearly identical to a measure approved in a 2013 referendum in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino banning the full-face Islamic veil.

The Ticino ban came into force on July 1. ATS quoted Mr Wobmann as saying that the goal of the national burqa ban was to “maintain public order and respect for the dignity of women”.

Tuesday’s vote may prove to be a largely symbolic move in the protracted process towards an outright ban on the full-face veil. Lawmakers will almost certainly defer action on the issue until the country weighs in through a referendum, ATS said.