Austria ‘burqa ban’ will take effect today

VIENNA — A law prohibiting any kind of full-face covering, known popularly as the “burqa ban,” takes effect today in Austria.

Parties campaigning on an anti-migrant message hope to win Oct. 15 legislative elections and form a coalition government. The country has had centrist governments consistently since World War II, but other countries across Europe recently have seen the rise of politicians who take a hard line on Islam and immigration.

Last month, the rightist, anti-migrant Alternative for Germany party won seats in the German parliament for the first time after featuring posters with the slogan “Burqas? We prefer bikinis” in its campaign.

The Austrian law — called “Prohibition for the Covering of the Face” — also forbids off-slope ski masks, surgical masks outside hospitals and party masks in public. Violations carry a possible fine of nearly $180, and police are authorized to use force with people who resist showing their faces.

Burqas, which some Muslim women wear to conceal their whole faces and bodies, are rare in Austria even after the recent surge of migrants into Europe. Support for the law is strong nonetheless, reflecting anti-Muslim attitudes in the predominantly Catholic country.

“It’s not right that those living here don’t show their faces,” said Emma Schwaiger, who expressed support for the ban on the streets of Vienna.

Female Muslims see as insincere the claim that the law is intended to help oppressed women.

Carla Amina Bhagajati of the Islamic Religious Community in Austria said the “handful” of fully veiled women she knows of in Vienna “now are criminalized and … restricted to their homes.”

“This open society is, in a hypocritical way, endangering its own values,” she said.