Excerpt:
Senators will next week vote on controversial proposals to ban people from wearing burkas and balaclava helmets in public places, 13 years after a burka ban was first mooted.
The ban, which is likely to have clear majority in the upper house of parliament, includes a €400 fine for people who cover their faces in government buildings, on public transport and in schools and hospitals.
During Tuesday’s debate on the ban, D66 senator Thom de Graaf said D66 senators are convinced of the need for the ban, which is a symbolic law to solve a problem which is not really an issue.
Other senators too said the new rules would be symbolic. However, CDA senator Tom Rombouts said wearing a burka was an obstacle to the social integration of women. The burka is also encourages inequality between men and women and this is something which had no role in Dutch society, he said.