Less than a year ago, Valentina made the decision to switch her headscarf for a niqab.
\u201cI feel better and safer wearing it,\u201d she told Al Jazeera. \u201cIt is also an act of worship.\u201d
For the 32-year-old from Switzerland, who prefers to be identified by only her first name, wearing the niqab \u2013 a veil worn by some Muslim women which covers the lower half of the face \u2013 is a personal choice.
\u201cI wear it for myself, not as a symbol to the outside world,\u201d she said.
But Valentina may not be able to wear the niqab for much longer.
On March 7, the Swiss will vote in a referendum that could usher in a ban on facial coverings, such as the niqab, in public.
The legislation, referred to locally as the burqa ban, does not specifically mention the facial coverings worn by Muslim women, but is largely seen to target them.
The proposed law mandates that \u201cno one shall cover their face in public\u201d and that \u201cno one is permitted to force someone to cover their face based on their gender\u201d.
There are some exceptions, such as for health reasons and traditions like a carnival.
Polls in local media outlets suggest that voters will narrowly approve the law, a move that some members of the Muslim minority believe singles them out from society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right-wing party pushes proposal \u2018Criminalising women\u2019 Less than a year ago, Valentina made the decision to switch her headscarf for a niqab.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c102-muslim-minorities"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/strong>The initiative to ban facial coverings was launched by the Egerkinger Komitee, a group including politicians of the right-wing Swiss People\u2019s Party (SVP) that says it organises \u201cresistance against the claims to power of political Islam in Switzerland\u201d.
The group argues that \u201cfree people show their face\u201d and that \u201cthe burqa and niqab are not normal clothes\u201d, but symbolise the oppression of women.
In 2017, the group collected the required 100,000 signatures to put the issue to a referendum, now due to take place on March 7.
For Andreas Tunger-Zanetti, a researcher on Islam at the University of Luzern and author of the book The Burqa Debate in Switzerland, the upcoming vote is about more than just clothing.
\u201cIt is about managing diversity,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is an issue for many people in Switzerland because there are no longer the distinct identity profiles people remember from their youth.\u201d
Tunger-Zanetti says the burqa is an easy target that represents the \u201cthreat\u201d of diversity because it is undoubtedly associated with Islam by Swiss voters.
According to official statistics, there are approximately 380,000 Muslims living in Switzerland, about 5 percent of the population, many with roots in the Balkan region.
Official statistics on women wearing facial coverings do not exist, but Tunger-Zanetti says the numbers are low.
Last year, he conducted a survey among key figures in Switzerland\u2019s Muslim community, asking how many women they know to be wearing a full facial covering.
\u201cThe survey revealed that there are no burqas in Switzerland,\u201d Tunger-Zanetti said.
He said that between 21 and 37 women wear the niqab.
\u201cIt is difficult to see how this can be sold as the pretended Islamisation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>It is not the first time that Switzerland\u2019s Muslim community has felt singled out by a referendum.
In 2009, voters accepted legislation, also proposed by the Egerkinger Komitee, to ban the construction of new minarets.
At the time, the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland was formed to represent the Muslim voice in the discussions around the minaret referendum. It has since become the nation\u2019s largest Muslim civil rights group.
The organisation\u2019s spokeswoman, Janina Rashidi, does not see a need for the proposed law on facial coverings.
\u201cYou are criminalising women for wearing something,\u201d she said.
\u201cI can understand that covering the face, for some people, might look strange,\u201d she said, \u201cbut there are so many things in our society that look strange to one or the other.\u201d
Rashidi compared the debate around the burqa to the differing opinions and preferences around face tattoos.
Rashidi said such laws reinforce the sentiments held by many Muslims of not being viewed as full members of Swiss society, despite being Swiss or having lived in the country for most of their lives.
\u201cThe radicalisation that we fear might happen is not because of some wrong perception or religious convictions,\u201d she said, \u201cit would be a direct result of these measures and the public discourse with a clear Islamophobic agenda.\u201d
The Swiss government has recommended voters reject the proposal.
In January, it said in a statement that a nationwide ban would \u201cundermine the sovereignty of the cantons, damage tourism and be unhelpful for certain groups of women\u201d.
The government also cited the low number of people the law would apply to.
The ban has already been introduced on a local level by two cantons \u2013 Switzerland\u2019s equivalent of states \u2013 St Gallen and Ticino.
In St Gallen, no woman has been reported or fined for covering her face since the law was introduced in 2019.
In Ticino, there have been 60 registered violations since the law was introduced in 2016, the majority of which were masked sports fans, and not women wearing the burqa or niqab.
If the ban is rejected in the referendum, a government proposal will come into force mandating facial coverings be removed for identification purposes. Funding will also be provided to women\u2019s rights organisations.
As for Valentina, she says the vote feels personal.
\u201cIt makes me very sad because the initiative\u2019s propaganda is based on the idea that we niqab wearers are terrorists,\u201d she said.
\u201cI am absolutely against terrorist organisations, and I don\u2019t see myself as extreme but as a normal Muslim,\u201d she said.
If the Swiss accept the ban at the polls, Valentina says she will move to Egypt, where her husband\u2019s family is from.
\u201cI\u2019m not taking the niqab off,\u201d she said.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"