The full session of the Parliament of the Balearic Islands has given this Tuesday the green light to the law promoted by Vox that bans the use of the burqa and the niqab in public spaces in the Balearic Islands. The initiative, backed by PP and Vox, will now be referred to the Congress of Deputies for final validation, by proposing changes to the Penal Code and other national laws.
The law provides for an absolute ban on the burqa and the niqab in any public space, economic penalties of up to 30,000 euros for those who reoffend in their use or impose them on minors or women under guardianship, as well as amendments to the Penal Code to punish with prison sentences of up to four years anyone who forces, intimidates or coerces a woman to wear these garments. It also contemplates expulsion from Spanish territory for foreign persons who repeatedly commit the offense.
Likewise, the rule determines that requiring the use of full-face veils is considered contrary to public order and human dignity, basic principles of the Spanish legal system.
Vox spokesperson Manuela Cañadas has defended the initiative and described the burqa and the full veil as “fabric prisons.” Cañadas has criticized what she calls the “cowardly consensus.” “At Vox we do not kneel before that cowardly consensus. We call things by their name. We are not going to tolerate that under the pretext of a false tolerance, one woman is forced to disappear from shared space. In the Balearic Islands, we do not accept even one step backward in women’s dignity,” she has said.
Manuela Cañadas has questioned the speeches of the left that “fill their mouths” about equality and sexism, “but remain silent when it is time to face a form of subjugation.”
On behalf of Vox, the deputy has argued that the law aims to ensure that coexistence is not left subject to particular impositions. “Who lives here has rights, but also has obligations and no belief can place anyone above the rules that allow us to live together,” she has stressed.
On behalf of the PP, deputy Cristina Gil has accused the left of practicing “rubber-stamp feminism” and of being opposed to the burqa and the niqab “but refusing to regulate it,” adding as well that all their amendments have been for suppression. “They don’t care about the fabric prison they live in,” she has pointed out.
The 'popular' parliamentarian has recalled that religious freedom "is not a blank check" and has insisted that in no case is it intended to ban Islam or restrict religious freedom, although, she has specified, "it does not make any conduct associated with a belief legally untouchable".
On the PSIB side, the deputy Teresa Suárez has begun her intervention by pointing out that the Islamic full-face veil is a sexist symbol that subjects women, but she has described Vox's proposal as a "pamphlet" that tries to make it seem that a woman who is forced to wear a burka lacks protection in Spain. In her view, this issue "is more than resolved from the standpoint of the current regulatory framework".
Suárez has criticized that the law relies on references to other European countries "forgetting" that there the hiding of the face is regulated in general with elements such as helmets or balaclavas and not only the burka or the full-face veil.
The socialist has shown her concern that an initiative that says it seeks to combat female submission ends up conveying a message that stigmatizes a specific religious confession. She has asked for a real diagnosis of the situation to be drawn up, for the affected women to be listened to, for the impact of the measures to be analyzed, and for it to stop being associated with machismo to a specific religion.
Unidas Podemos deputy José María García has rejected the motion, which he has described as "anti-Muslim immigration". "This is not about defending Muslim women, nor those who are of another religion, because the far right decided many years ago that defending women against sexist violence was not something they were involved in. They don't believe it," he said.
In García's view, Vox's rule "criminalizes" the Muslim woman who chooses to cover her face, while it does not question "the fascists" who cover their faces "to go and beat up the people camping out about housing".
The spokesperson for Més per Menorca, Josep Castells, has defined the full-face veil and the niqab as "expressions of patriarchy" and has stated that "no woman should have to live behind a piece of cloth that has been imposed on her". However, he has argued that the law "does not free but punishes". "It's curious that Vox, which rejects the existence of gender-based violence the most, presents itself as a savior of Muslim women," he said.
In the turn for setting positions, the deputy of MÉS per Mallorca Marta Carrió has begun, like other groups, by underlining that the burka and the niqab are "an expression of patriarchy, they are control over women's bodies and are sexist violence".
The ecosovereigntist representative has censured that, in the articles, the term sexist violence is not included at any point, despite being, she said, a central element of the debate. Carrió has defended that violence has no religion or nationality and that it has not been imported to Spain.
Carrió has rejected that the rule supposes real protection for women because "first the man covers her, then the police fine her and later she is expelled." The MÉS deputy has criticized the PP's support, comparing it with "if a fine were imposed on a woman victim of sexist violence who arrived at a health center with a black eye."
Regarding the absence of amendments by the left, she explained that a law "whose only new measure is to sanction and expel the victim is not amended; it is erased."