In a debate on Swedish Radio Wednesday between moderate Conservative Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and opposition Social Democrat leader Mona Sahlin, the question of France’s controversial proposed ban on Moslem women wearing burkas in public came up.
The prime minister indicated that while he did not favor a legal ban on this clothing totally covering a woman’s body, he did not want to see more women in wearing burkas in Sweden.
Sahlin responded that freedom of religion also ought to include freedom from religion, and that she would continue to fight for the right of women to not be forced into wearing burkas. But, Sahlin added, this also includes the right of women and girls to wear shawls.