by Jules Gomes, Middle East Forum
Italian Islamist Says Policy Is ‘White Supremacist’
Italy has approved a decree-law banning face coverings in schools and capping the percentage of non-Italian students or pupils with low Italian language proficiency at 30 percent in the first year of primary, middle, and high school.
The decree-law, passed by Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s cabinet of ministers on September 24, takes effect immediately but must be ratified by parliament within 60 days. Lawbreakers wearing face veils to school face fines of €200 to €1,000.
“You must go to school with your face uncovered, and in Italy no one, in the name of a real or supposed tradition, can decide that a young woman must hide herself,” Meloni told an annual youth gathering of her Fratelli D’Italia party.
The new law “also requires parents of foreign students facing serious difficulties integrating into the school system to learn Italian and bans burqas and niqabs in schools,” Meloni said, explicitly identifying the Islamic face coverings in her speech.
“These are common-sense rules—rules that clearly serve a safety purpose,” the Prime Minister told Rai 1 TV. “Similar measures prohibiting people from appearing at school, university, or even in public offices with their faces covered already exist across Europe and even in several Muslim-majority countries, precisely for security reasons.”
Meloni said she prided herself on defending women’s rights, remarking: “I find it rather odd that the very people who accuse us of not doing enough for women’s rights … fail to see that this measure actually addresses the issue of women’s rights.”
According to school sector estimates, Muslims represent around one-third of foreign students, or about 350,000 students nationwide. In over 1,000 Italian schools (750 in comprehensive schools and 250 in secondary schools), Muslim pupils exceed 30% of classroom capacity.