Following France’s controversial ban on full-face veils like burqas and niqabs, Denmark is now planning to extend a similar ban to female students in schools and universities.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced on Thursday that the government aims to broaden its current 2018 law, which already prohibits women from wearing full-face veils in public, to cover educational institutions as well.
She also expressed a desire to remove prayer rooms from universities, suggesting these spaces could be used for “social control and oppression,” though she stopped short of calling for an official ban.
Frederiksen stressed that while everyone has the right to practice their religion, “God has to step aside. You have the right to your faith and to practice your religion, but democracy takes precedence,” she told Danish news agency Ritzau.
The proposed extension has faced backlash from human rights advocates and religious groups, who argue that the ban unfairly targets women and violates religious freedom.
The government plans to start talks with universities about eliminating prayer rooms, with Frederiksen saying, “We are actively taking a position that we don’t want them because they are used as a mechanism of oppression against girls and potentially boys as well.”