Within just a few weeks, the niqab and burqa have returned to the centre of political and legal debate across several European countries, as a series of measures have sought to restrict face coverings in public spaces and educational institutions.
The latest move came in Spain, where the Lleida City Council in the country’s east approved an amendment to its civic behaviour and coexistence regulations on Friday, banning clothing or items that completely conceal the face in public spaces. The measure includes the niqab and burqa and provides for fines ranging from €400 to €750.
Exceptions apply in places of worship and in certain situations involving the exercise of fundamental rights or socially accepted customs.
The regulation was approved with the votes of the Socialist Party, which governs the city, together with Junts per Catalunya and Vox. The People’s Party and other groups voted against it.
Unlike neighbouring European countries such as France, Portugal and Belgium, Spain does not have a nationwide law banning or restricting the niqab and burqa.
A Series of Measures Within Weeks
The Spanish decision follows legislation passed by the Portuguese parliament in July banning face coverings in public spaces. The law was promulgated by the president in August and provides for fines ranging from €150 to €3,000, with exemptions for health, professional, artistic and weather-related reasons, as well as places of worship. Portugal’s official legislation was published on 24 August and entered into force in September.
In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced that her government would prohibit the wearing of burqas and niqabs in schools. The Council of Ministers approved the decree on 24 September.
The Italian government presented the measure as part of a wider policy aimed at strengthening integration within the education system, alongside measures concerning Italian-language learning and the composition of school classrooms.
What Arguments Are Being Used?
Supporters of such restrictions offer different justifications from country to country, but their arguments generally revolve around three themes: the ability to identify individuals, integration and communication within society, and protecting women from coercion or discrimination.
In Italy, Meloni presented her government’s decision as part of an “integration” policy in schools, saying the new rules were intended to prevent isolated educational environments from forming and to promote equal opportunities.
In Lleida, local authorities have framed the regulation around civic conduct and women’s rights, while critics argue that it restricts religious freedom.
Mourad Al-Boudawi, from the Watani Association for Freedom and Justice in Lleida, argues that women who wear the niqab should instead be approached through dialogue, education and assistance in entering the labour market, rather than through bans.
Rights Groups Warn of Further Isolation
Human rights organisations have challenged such prohibitions, arguing that restricting the niqab can further isolate women who choose to cover their faces.
After Portugal’s parliament approved its law, Amnesty International described the blanket ban as a threat to human rights, warning that it affects freedom of expression and religion and may lead to greater social isolation and difficulties accessing education, employment and public services.
A former Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights has similarly warned that general bans on the niqab may isolate women further rather than “liberate” them, pointing to questions of privacy and religious freedom protected under the European Convention on Human Rights.
The United Nations has also addressed the issue. In cases concerning France, the UN Human Rights Committee concluded that a blanket ban on full-face coverings had a disproportionate impact on Muslim women and amounted to discrimination based on gender and religion.
Pablo Zaldibia Luengo, a researcher at the University of the Basque Country, reached a similar conclusion in a specialised legal study of the niqab in Spain, arguing that restrictions on full-face coverings cannot be justified on human rights and proportionality grounds except where they are tied to public safety requirements or identity verification.
Why Are These Measures Appearing at the Same Time?
There is no available indication that the three countries are acting under a coordinated European decision or a common policy to ban or restrict the niqab.
What has changed is the wider political environment in which the issue is being debated.
The niqab has increasingly become part of a broader European argument over migration, integration and national identity. Although the number of women who wear it remains limited in most European countries, the garment carries considerable symbolic weight in political debates about the place of religion in public life.
These measures are also emerging during a period of sharp political polarisation between the right and left across Europe, alongside the growing influence of right-wing and nationalist movements that have placed immigration, national identity and integration at the centre of political competition.
Against that backdrop, the renewed debate over the niqab, hijab and other Islamic symbols is difficult to separate from the current electoral and political climate. Such issues have increasingly been used by right-wing political forces to mobilise supporters and appeal to their electoral bases.
Rising Discrimination Against Muslims
The debate is unfolding alongside documented increases in discrimination experienced by Muslims in Europe.
According to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 47% of Muslim respondents surveyed across 13 European countries said they had experienced racial discrimination during the five years preceding the survey, up from 39% in the previous survey.
The agency also found that Muslim women who wear religious clothing are particularly exposed to discrimination and harassment. Among Muslim women wearing religious clothing in public, 27% reported harassment, compared with 16% among those who did not.
The agency has also drawn attention to anti-Muslim hostility appearing in political discourse.
For rights advocates, the concern therefore extends beyond the wording of individual laws. They warn that Islamic religious symbols can become tools through which Muslims are singled out or presented as outsiders within European societies, potentially deepening exclusion rather than advancing integration.
Europe’s Restrictions Are Not New
The latest developments in Spain, Italy and Portugal are not the beginning of European restrictions on face coverings.
France became the first European country to introduce a general ban on concealing the face in public spaces in 2010, with the law entering into force in 2011. Belgium subsequently adopted comparable legislation.
Further restrictions followed in Bulgaria, Denmark and Austria, while countries including the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway and Germany introduced partial restrictions covering settings such as schools, hospitals, public transport and government institutions.
In Switzerland, voters approved a nationwide ban on face coverings in a 2021 referendum, with the measure taking effect in 2025.
The renewed focus on the niqab therefore raises a broader question that extends beyond full-face coverings: whether the continuing expansion of restrictions on Islamic dress in Europe could eventually place the hijab itself under greater political and legal pressure.
