Cabberra, July 13: A veil law proposed in Australia would make it so that Muslim women would be forced to show their faces to police upon request or risk being sentenced to prison.
This proposed law has drawn criticism and is being called culturally insensitive by many. The debate is a reflection of the cultural clashes that have been growing due to the increasing number of Muslim immigrants in Canberra.
Under the new law, if a woman who defies police by refusing to remove her face veil, she could be sentenced to a year in prison and fined $5,900. According to the government, the law would require motorists and criminal suspects to remove their head coverings so that they could be identified by police.
Only about 400,000 Australians are Muslim out of a population of 23 million. Critics of the veil law say that the bill is biased against Muslims, as evidenced by the fact that less than 2,000 women wear face veils.
“It does seem to be very heavy handed, and there doesn’t seem to be a need,” said David Bernie, spokesman for the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, as quoted by Fox News. “It shows some cultural insensitivity.”
–Agencies