AMSTERDAM, 12 August. - (ANA) - One year after the burka ban in the Netherlands, Muslim women are reporting increased discrimination and violence. Adding to the frustration, face masks against coronavirus have become mandatory on Dutch public transport.

 

On 1 August it was one year since the Dutch government approved a controversial law prohibiting clothing that "completely covers the face".

 

It followed similar, albeit stricter, bans in France and Belgium. The Dutch ban prohibited such clothing from being worn in public transport or in public buildings such as schools, hospitals and government buildings.

 

"People often think that I have to wear it as my husband says so, but it is my own choice," she says. "I actually did not have a husband when I started wearing it. It is really difficult wearing a burka.

 

People just see you as the enemy. It makes me feel totally alone, pushed in a corner," she adds. It's unfair, Emarah says, frustration evident in her voice. "I am being discriminated against only because I want to practice my religion, for my choice."

 

Despite being famous around the world for its liberalism, "the Netherlands is becoming less and less tolerant," says Emarah, with a sigh. She views the law as "an attack on Islam" and says it goes directly against her right to freedom of religion, as enshrined in the Dutch constitution and the European Convention of Human Rights.

 

If she were forced to remove her burka, she says "it would feel humiliating …it was my choice to put it on, and I would want to make the choice to take it off."

 

Safa, a practicing 30-year-old Muslim, feels the ban sowed fear among the wider Muslim society, despite only a tiny minority of women – perhaps 150 – wearing the burka or niqab in the Netherlands.

 

Some of her more religiously conservative friends have now emigrated to other countries, in particular the United Kingdom. "They don't feel welcome here anymore, " she explains. -(ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/12 August 2020 - - -