Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Netherlands, long seen as a bastion of tolerance and\nreligious freedom, is the latest European country to introduce such a ban,\nfollowing the likes of France, Germany, Belgium, Austria and Denmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Muslim and rights groups have voiced opposition to the law \u2014\nformally called the \u201cpartial ban on face-covering clothing\u201d \u2014 and an Islamic\npolitical party in Rotterdam has said it will pay the 150-euro ($167) fines for\nanybody caught breaking it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were no immediate reports Thursday morning of anybody\nbeing fined under the new law, which was passed despite the fact that very few\nwomen in the Netherlands wear a burqa or niqab \u2014 estimates put the number at a\nfew hundred in this nation of 17 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders, whose calls for a total\nburqa ban ignited more than a decade of debate before parliament approved the\nlaw last year, welcomed the introduction of the limited ban as \u201ca historic day\u201d\nand called for it to be expanded to include Islamic headscarves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI believe we should now try to take it to the next step,\u201d\nWilders told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. \u201cThe next step to\nmake it sure that the headscarf could be banned in the Netherlands as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Dutch government has insisted that its partial ban\ndoesn\u2019t target any religion and that people are free to dress how they want. A\ngovernment site explaining the new ban says, however, that \u201cthis freedom is\nlimited at locations where communication is vital for good quality service or\nfor security in society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wilders dismissed that explanation as political correctness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interior Minister Kajsa Ollongren, who wasn\u2019t available for\ncomment Thursday, said earlier this year that the government will evaluate the\nnew law after three years \u2014 usually such evaluations follow five years after a\nnew law is implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It remains to be seen how strenuously the law will be\nenforced in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The national federation of academic hospitals said in a\nstatement that enforcement is up to police and prosecutors. It added: \u201cWe are\nnot aware of any cases in which wearing face-covering clothing or a possible\nban has led to problems\u201d in health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The head of the umbrella organization of public transport\ncompanies also has said that bus drivers and train conductors don\u2019t have the\npower to enforce it and would have to leave it up to police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Dutch ban came into force eight years after France\nbecame the first European nation to ban the public use of veils, both\nface-covering niqabs and full-body burqas. A 2004 law also bans Muslim hijab\nheadscarves and other prominent religious symbols from being worn in state\nschools, but doesn\u2019t apply in universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
France\u2019s tough law fell foul of the U.N. Human Rights\nCommittee, which last year ruled that the country violated the human rights of\ntwo women by fining them for wearing the niqab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Professor Tom Zwart of the University of Utrecht, who\nstudies the intersection of law, culture and religion, said that the ban is\nlargely symbolic, but for women who wear a niqab \u201cthe ban is still on the\nbooks, and if they come across a strict bus driver or tram conductor, they\nmight still be in trouble. This undoubtedly has a chilling effect on their\nability to take part in public life.\u201d\n\nCopyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights\nreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or\nredistributed.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Netherlands \u2014 A new Dutch law took effect banning face-covering clothing \u2014 including the burqa and niqab worn by conservative Muslim women \u2014 on public transportation, in government buildings and at health and education institutions. Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2019 The Netherlands, long seen as a bastion of tolerance and religious freedom, is the latest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":4310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[332],"class_list":["post-4308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs-articles","tag-face-covering-clothing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4311,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4308\/revisions\/4311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}