Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Roessler
Spain’s far-right Vox Party has sparked renewed controversy by proposing legislation to criminalize wearing the niqab and burqa in public, which rights groups and Muslim organizations describe as a discriminatory attack on religious freedom.
The proposal, titled “Law for the Protection of Women’s Dignity and Public Safety in Public Spaces”, seeks to ban full-face Islamic coverings nationwide and impose fines of up to 600 euros on women who wear them. Repeat offences could carry penalties of up to 30,000 euros, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
The draft bill would also introduce prison sentences of up to three years for anyone found guilty of coercing a woman into wearing the garments.
Critics argue that the legislation targets a tiny minority of Muslim women while fuelling anti-Muslim sentiment ahead of Spain’s 2027 general election.
Vox has framed the niqab and burqa as symbols of “subjugation” and claimed they pose a security threat, a rhetoric that civil rights advocates say echoes long-standing Islamophobic narratives in Europe.
The party is seeking backing from the centre-right People’s Party (PP), which has indicated willingness to cooperate. PP spokesperson Ester Muñoz said the two parties were working on issues that “unite them”.
However, the bill faces significant opposition and is unlikely to pass in its current form. The pro-independence Together for Catalonia party (Junts) has already said it will vote against the proposal.
Vox, founded in 2013, rose rapidly in Spanish politics on a platform centred on hardline nationalism and anti-immigration policies. The party has repeatedly been accused of promoting racist and Islamophobic discourse, though it lost ground in the 2023 general election.
Spain currently has no nationwide ban on religious face coverings. Attempts by municipalities in Catalonia to restrict the niqab and burqa in public buildings were challenged in court, and in 2013, Spain’s Supreme Court overturned a ban in the town of Lleida, ruling that it infringed religious freedom.
Across Europe, several governments have enacted similar restrictions on face coverings, measures widely criticised by human rights organisations as disproportionately targeting Muslim women.
Opponents of Vox’s proposal say the bill does little to advance women’s rights and instead instrumentalises feminist language to justify policies that marginalise Muslim communities.