Veiled women strolling in Barcelona: (AFP)In the West, the veil has now gone beyond a cliché symbol into a catalyst for policymaking. Whereas new dress code laws claim they aren't specifically targeting religion, banning face coverings directly affects the choice to wear certain traditional Muslim attire such as the niqab or burka. Consequently, issues of free speech, freedom of religion, public safety, and current events are all colliding with stereotypes and Islamaphobia in a cocktail for rabble-rousing debate on how religion should be dealt with in the public sphere, and more specifically, how Eastern cultural traditions should be dealt with in Western democratic societies.

On June 14, 2010, the city council of Barcelona banned face-covering veils in municipal buildings with an overwhelming 23 votes in favor and only two abstainees. The mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, said the ban has been instated out of "security and common sense," and stressed that the action is not specifically meant to single out religious attire. The ban applies to "any type of attire that would obstruct identification", and includes "motorcycle helmets" and of course, "ski masks." With a few exceptions, according to the specifics of each place, the ban effects public markets, civic centers, libraries, schools, day-care centers, government offices and attraction parks.

Barcelona is the third Catalan city to ban the burka and niqab. The first was Lleida, which approved the ban May 28, and the second was El Vendrell (Tarragona). Also, on the opposite end of Spain, the Andalusian town of Coín (Malaga) was awaiting finalization of their own ban to go into effect June 28. However, they didn't need to wait so long, because on June 23, Spain's Senate surprisingly approved a nation-wide ban in a 131 to 129 vote.

Spain's vote on the burka ban has been criticized as a red herring used to distract the public from crucial economic questions during Spanish elections. Some observers have noted a tendency in Spanish politics to ignore deeper issues and focus instead on ideological wars between the deeply religious conservative right and the liberal crusading left-two hyperbolic extremes. This can be seen in the vociferous debate surrounding recent abortion laws allowing sixteen year-olds to abort without parental consent and the legalizing of gay marriage in Spain.

The New York Times quoted Spain's Secretary of State for Immigration, Anna Terrón, saying the vote on the burka had "more to do with the election campaign in which the CiU is involved than with a real discussion" on the topic. The CiU is a Catalan political party that switched their position at the last minute to pass the nation-wide ban. Jaouad Mufli, a Moroccan technician with a degree in Arabic Literature, who is also an administrator for a Moroccan NGO for children in precarious situations in Rabat, said in an email exchange, "In this time of an economic crisis, the credibility of some politicians is becoming more and more questionable. They are using the burka as a game, as if it were a piece of paper to gain more votes. The question is, how many women in Barcelona or in Spain wear the burka? Hardly any."

Salma, a French national living in Belgium, who chooses to wear the niqab: (Reuters)Mufli added, "I see the burka issue in Europe as a fight in the style of Don Quixote, a war with nobody, playing with ideals in the imagination, a debate without results. The most important thing for politicians to be focusing on right now is the 4 million people without jobs in Spain, not the fifty or so women who wear the burka. I don't agree with the burka, but I also don't agree with European politicians using it as a political tool. To force a Muslim woman to take off the burka is a counterproductive violation of human rights and the religious freedom recognized in the Spanish Constitution."

Spain's ban is one of the numerous initiatives going on across Europe to ban Muslim attire that covers the face. The main reason for these bans is "safety." However, in an article that appeared in the New York Times on June 24, the main reasons presented are "to restrict the spread of radical Islam and defend liberal values." The article cites France's long heated debate on the same issue, as well as the banning of the construction of minarets in Switzerland last year. These discussions have become highly symbolic, and through Europe's recent policies concerning the burka, women's rights has inevitably made it to the forefront of the discussion.

According to Spain's principal newspaper, El País, the Spanish minister of Work and Immigration, Celestino Corbacho, said in a visit to Lleida on May 17 that "If I'm walking down the street and I see someone wearing a cross, I know that that person is close to their Christian religion, and it's fine. If the symbol of a religious belief is a headscarf instead, it's fine, but the burka is another thing entirely." Corbacho added, "I'm respectful of individual religious beliefs, but to completely hide a woman behind a piece of cloth, for however much religious symbolism it has, is a radical clash with our society and a society that supports the advancement of equality between men and women." Meanwhile, the Spanish Minister of Justice, Francisco Caamaño, conceded that the burka "fortunately, isn't a huge problem today," but that those in Spain who are putting laws in place against it are interpreting religious freedom as something that requires "proportionality" and "moderation." Caamaño added that these new laws intend to "defend the dignity of women."

Magdalena Arcia Prieto, a cross-cultural expert in Seville, Spain agreed with this perspective on the topic. In an interview, she said, "I see [the burka] as a sign of a woman's submission to the males in her life. Secondly, it is degrading and nullifies who the woman is entirely. She becomes a non person, someone who is not seen or heard. It is also a national security issue, [because] you don't really know who is under the burka. It could be a woman OR a man, and it allows the person to hide from the law. We identify who a person is by their facial features; passport, driver's licenses, IDs, etc." She agreed that we must "always respect the person's integrity," yet reminded me that the phrase "When in Rome do as the Romans" applies here. She concluded that "unfortunately the world is living in times of terrorism and countries need to avoid any possibilities of threat. Immigrants should always respect and abide by the country's laws in which they are living."

On the other side of the issue, Libby Lies, an American English teacher and a revert Muslim preparing to teach in Saudi Arabia, argued that, "There seems to be so much subtext and underlying instability that goes along with these niqab bans in Europe. I think that a lot of the fervor fueling this debate stems from antiquated racism that many white Europeans have inherited as members of a post-imperialist/post-colonial society." Having traveled to France, Ms. Lies observed, "While white, secularist French enjoy civil liberties and upward social mobility, brown folks either from Africa or French citizens with African ancestry (most of them Muslim-North or Sub-Saharan African, Turkish, etc.) are systematically pushed aside."

In fact, France does have the largest Muslim population of any European country, and with issues like the burka ban, Lies points out, "It's as if in an effort to define Frenchness as secular, white, and Francophone, the true meanings of liberté, égalité, and fraternité are overshadowed by some of the same xenophobia practiced in this country."

More and more Western cities are beginning to ban face coverings, and even entire countries are joining the momentum. Besides Spain's recent national ban, the Belgian Parliament passed a national ban on face coverings in April—an act that was condemned by Amnesty International as an "attack on religious freedom." France's own discussion on banning the burka brings up similar questions.

In an op-ed piece in the New York Times that appeared on May 4, 2010, the majority leader in the French National Assembly and mayor of Meaux, Jean-François Copé, said it is not a matter of religious freedom, but is more a question of "How can you establish a relationship with a person who, by hiding a smile or a glance—those universal signs of our common humanity—refuses to exist in the eyes of others?" He argued that religious freedom only exists "as long as we are responsible individuals who can be held accountable for our actions before our peers. But the niqab and burka represent a refusal to exist as a person in the eyes of others. The person who wears one is no longer identifiable; she is a shadow among others, lacking individuality, avoiding responsibility."

France's president Nicolas Sarkozy has called the burka "a sign of subservience," and France passed a law in 2004 that bans religious symbols from public schools, which includes the headscarf.

The conversation isn't limited to only Western countries. Tunisia, a country that requires the president to be Muslim, doesn't allow face coverings in public buildings and even discourages them in the streets. Similarly, Ataturk, in an attempt to promote Western ideals, banned the headscarf in Turkey, and the successive Turkish governments began to enforce the ban in universities in 1984. However, these bans have been criticized by women, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, who resent the fact that the law is yet another force where male politicians are imposing rules upon them. The ban in Turkey has recently been lifted, leaving the West (whether rightfully or not) to question Turkey's sincerity in wanting to join the European Union and their commitment to progressive ideals.

Given the fact that Turkey is a Muslim country, the whole issue makes a little more sense, because within Barcelona's 1.5 million population, it is about as unusual to see a woman wearing a burka or niqab in public as it is to see a person wearing a ski mask.

In a recent Levantine Review article on a compilation of essays concerning Islamic coverings, Teresa Cutler-Boyles says, "When we create meanings for the veil we miss the point. The veil becomes not only opaque, but a mirror that reflects back to us ourselves and our own misperceptions, our own fears...Sacred. Sensual. Sociopolitical. The ways we misunderstand are legion." And Jamil Sidqi al-Zahawi, an Iraqi poet (1863-1936) said, "A veil does not protect a woman's chastity. An education does."

The new burka ban in Spain will most likely be challenged, as the current Zapatero-led government believes education is the key tool in fighting terrorism that stems from radical Islam, not restrictions on dress.

Jessica Proett is a writer who has studied in St. Petersburg, Russia and Sevilla, Spain. She covers women's issues and the relationship between Islam and the West for the Levantine Review.