Italian Mayor’s Decision to Ban Burkas Sparks Outrage
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Italy is in the throes of a vitriolic debate about religious tolerance and national identity following the decision of the mayor of an Alpine village in the northeast of the country to ban the wearing of the burka.
The ban, which was introduced in the tiny village of Drezzo after the mayor cited a Mussolini-era law and fined a local Muslim convert for wearing the head-to-toe covering in public, is being taken up by other villages in north Italy and has triggered a furious reaction from Italy’s large Muslim population.
With passions running high, the issue is now engulfing the national parties and is likely to land in the country’s Constitutional Court. Politicians in the governing coalition of Prime Minister Berlusconi are supportive of the ban, while center-left opposition parties have denounced the Drezzo initiative as an infringement of human rights.
The woman who was fined, Sabrina Varroni, has refused to pay two penalties totaling about $80 imposed recently by Drezzo Mayor Cristian Tolettini, a member of the populist Northern League, a junior government party that wants autonomy for the north of Italy and has been buoyed by rising anti-immigrant feelings in the country.
Mrs. Varroni, who converted to Islam nine years ago after marrying a Moroccan, said the ban is aimed at her religion. “I am Italian, raised in Drezzo, and I have never done any harm to anyone. I can’t understand why I’m being persecuted like this,” she told ANSA, the Italian wire service.
Mr. Tolettini, who took offense when Mrs. Varroni took up the all-enveloping garb after taking a pilgrimage to Mecca, discovered an esoteric Fascist-era law prohibiting citizens from wearing masks. For good measure, he also invoked a law dating from the 1970s and passed at the height of the Red Brigades terrorism forbidding the wearing of any clothing that could obscure a person’s identity.
The mayor said he is not anti-Muslim but was merely enforcing the laws on the books when he ordered the local police to ticket Mrs. Varroni, when she was at a bus stop and another time when she visited the municipal office.
“I only ask that my citizens respect the law,” Mr. Tolettini said. While he said Mrs. Varroni is the only person wearing the burka in his village of 1,000 inhabitants, the mayor warns that others could follow, posing a security risk in this era of terrorism. National League politicians agree, arguing that at a time when suspected terror cells have been unmasked in Italy, it is foolish to allow people to move around in “disguise.”
That is not the view of opposition politicians, who warn that other villages are taking up the ban and say that Italy’s burka debate echoes the recent political clash in France over the wearing of Muslim head-scarves in state schools. Gianfranco Pagliarulo of the Italian Communist Party accused the Drezzo mayor and his Northern League backers of an “ignoble act of persecution which increases the gap between different cultures.”
Last week, in a village near Treviso, in the Veneto region, a Bangladeshi woman wearing a burka was stopped by police and ordered to remove it. League politicians have vowed to spread the ban and to try to get authorities in the large cities of Milan and Turin to follow suit. Such a move could provoke an ugly clash with Muslims.
Targeting the burka is just the latest in Northern League moves aimed at Muslims. After the September 11 terror attacks, party leaders demanded that mosques be shut down.
According to Northern League Senator Cesarino Monti, the burka issue is not like the head-scarves debate that erupted in France. “We are not talking about a scarf here but a costume that completely envelopes a person.” He added: “Would a bank manager be willing to let burka-clad people into his bank? What’s the difference between a burka and a balaclava?”
Green Party politicians accuse the League of headline-grabbing and of seeking to foment cultural divisions. Anti-immigrant feeling has mounted in Italy in recent years following a jump in Muslim immigration from North Africa and the Balkans. A highly traditional society, Italy has found adjusting to immigrants difficult and the debate over the cultural and social changes wrought has increased in intensity.
Last year, a book by journalist Oriana Fallacci called “Anger and Pride,” lauding Italian culture and questioning the virtues of Islamic culture, became a bestseller in the country.
Legal experts say the Constitutional Court is likely to overturn the ban in Drezzo and in other villages that follow suit. But last week the minister for parliamentary affairs, Carlo Giovanardi, said the ban is legal and should be observed.