Burka ban in Spain

The Islamic Burka has been outlawed in all public areas a surprise vote in the Spanish senate earlier today. Following assurances from the CiU, the vote of 129 to 131 against was 'unexpected'.

Earlier this week the President of the Catalan PP, Alicia Sanchez Camacho, stated that the burka was not a religious symbol and that they "discriminate against women and we want to ensure equal rights and be free to exist here in Catalonia and elsewhere".

Camacho made her proposal in the Senate today to ban the two Islamic veils and deeply regretted that the PSOE want to prohibit the use of these items through the Religious Freedom Act, as an "excuse" which took advantage of socialists to deny the Christian symbolism. She stressed that the use of the burqa and the niqab should not be included in a law on religions, because it refers to an "issues of rights, equality and dignity of Muslim women".