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UAE women advised not to wear niqab, burqa in Switzerland

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UAE women advised not to wear niqab, burqa in Switzerland

Earlier this year, a burqa ban had been enforced in a Swiss canton.

Published: Thu 11 Aug 2016, 12:33 PM

Updated: Fri 12 Aug 2016, 8:57 AM

  • By
  • Curated by Yousuf Saifuddin Kapadia

The UAE Mission in Geneva has advised Emirati women not to wear veiled clothes, including niqabs and burqas, when travelling to Switzerland.
The Mission took to Twitter to issue the travel advisory, informing Emiratis about the burqa ban in the European country.
Tweeting in Arabic, the UAE Mission advised Emirati travellers to comply with the niqab and burqa ban that was enforced in a Swiss canton.

The following tweet listed the areas where the ban was enforced.
The areas include:
Lugano, Locarno, Magadino, Bellinzona, Ascona and Mendrisio.
Not complying with the law could result in a fine of 1,000 Swiss Francs:
The UAE Mission also issued other important things to note when travelling to Switzerland, regarding the safety of their luggage and traffic rules.
Earlier this year in July, new burqa ban has been enforced in a Swiss canton, with two people already being fined for defying it, the Telegraph had reported.
A Swiss woman, who has converted to Islam, and a French-Algerian businessman publically opposed the ban in the city of Locarno, and were both fined.
More than 65 per cent of voters had approved the ban in a referendum in the canton in 2013.
The Saudi Arabian embassy had already warned its citizens visiting Switzerland about the ban. 
In Europe, so far, there is a blanket ban on veils and other religious symbols across France and ban on full face veils in Belgium.
Meanwhile, areas in Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Russia have banned burqas and veils.
Recently, senior German ministers have called for banning burqas in the country.



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