Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is proposing a ban on burqas in her country’s schools.
Meloni said she also wants to cap the number of foreign students able to enroll in Italian schools.
She has additionally proposed making Italian language lessons mandatory for parents of foreign students having “serious difficulties integrating into the school system,” according to the Associated Press.
“For us, anyone who comes to Italy and wants to build their future here must learn our language, understand our culture, and respect our rules,” she said at a rally of the youth wing of her conservative party.
“It is the only serious way to welcome them,’ she said.
Once an official proposal is sent to Italy’s parliament, it has 60 days to be approved.
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France and Belgium currently ban face coverings in public. Austria has a restriction on them in schools, introduced restrictions in schools, according to Euronews.
“It is unacceptable that in an Italian classroom the children who end up feeling pushed into a corner are Italian children because they have become the minority. That cannot be allowed,” Meloni said during the rally where she unveiled her plan.
“Calling all this integration is yet another lie, a convenient lie for those who live off ideology, for those who preach to us from their living rooms and then send their own children to schools where this problem does not exist,” she said
The proposed amendment would create a new crime of forcing someone to conceal their face.
The sentence could be up to two years in prison, plus a fine and a ban on obtaining Italian citizenship.
Meloni’s proposal covers the burqa and the niqab.
A burqa covers the entire body, although the eyes can either be visible or screened with mesh.
A niqab covers the face, with only the eyes visible. A hijab is a headscarf that allows the face to be seen.
This article originally appeared on The Western Journal and is reposted with permission.
