OSLO – The government of Norway is mulling over ban on full-face veils in kindergartens, schools and universities, the government said on Monday.
Norway’s government, a coalition of the centre-right Conservatives and the populist Progress Party, said it was confident it would find opposition support for the move.
“We have every reason to believe this will be approved by parliament,” Education Minister Torbjoern Roe Isaksen told Reuters.
Supporting the ban, acting Minister of Immigration and Integration, Per Sandberg expressed that niqab or burqa did not belong in Norwegian schools.
“Face-covering garments such as the niqab or burqa do not belong in Norwegian schools. The ability to communicate is a basic value,” said Sandberg.
Employees who insist on wearing a veil would risk losing their jobs, and students could face expulsion from the university, he added.
It bears mentioning that France, Netherlands, Belgium, Bulgaria and the German state of Bavaria have all imposed restrictions on wearing full-face veils in public places. However, Norway will be the first country in the Nordics to introduce such ban.
