society
The motion was proposed by the Councillor for Equality and was approved by a large majority
03.07.10 - 12:38 -
Meeting. Councillors at Monday’s vote to ban the burka. R.L.
On Monday Coín became the first council in Andalucía to vote to ban the use of the burka and niqab in all of the town’s buildings and amenities, including schools, sports facilities, art venues and social centres.
The ban was proposed by the ruling PSOE (Socialist) party on the basis of the need for identification for security purposes, for reasons of promoting equality between the sexes and to make a stand against the subjugation of women that might be forced to wear the garments by their husbands and families.
Coín’s Councillor for Equality, Inmaculada Agüera, proposed the motion in front of a packed council chamber, citing the council’s legal obligations under the Spanish Constitution to guarantee equality of the sexes and Coín’s own policies for the integration and acceptance of foreign residents. As well as pointing out the various provisions made by the council for foreign residents locally, she was at pains to point out that the ban of any item of clothing that partially or fully covered the face was not a move designed to discriminate against people based on religion but was a stand against a situation in which some women could be singled out as being “treated differently to men and other women in our society”.
Dissenters amongst the council pointed out that so far it is only thought that only three local women wore the traditional burka out of the 1,500 or so Muslims in Coín and that generally it was an item worn out of choice and not a sign of repression or subjugation.
In the end the vote was 19 in favour, one against and two abstentions. The Partido Popular (Conservative) councilors voted for the motion with the Socialists on the proviso that a clause be added petitioning Spain’s central government to legislate on the issue to avoid local councils from needing to create piecemeal legislation across the country. Councillor Francisco José Enriquez Llagas of the I.U. ‘United Left’ party voted against the motion stating that the ban was “repressive” and could be seen as an attempt to “criminalise a culture” and that the wishes of the women themselves may not being taken into consideration.
