THE LOCAL (SWEDEN): Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said definitively on Thursday that he is against introducing legislation which would ban women from wearing burqas.
“No, that’s not something I want,” he told the TT news agency.
The clarification comes following a Wednesday night debate with Social Democratic leader Mona Sahlin on Sveriges Radio in which both offered their views on prohibiting burqas in Sweden.
A parliamentary commission in France recently used a public buildings and transport bill to proposed a law which would ban the wearing of head-to-toe veils in public.
During the debate, Sahlin clearly rejected the idea of a similar proposal in Sweden, while Reinfeldt expressed himself somewhat more cautiously, which led to questions as to where exactly he stands on the issue.
But on Thursday he attempted to clarify that he would not support a law banning burqas, which he said would be “counterproductive”.
“Legislation shouldn’t lead to certain women being isolated even more from Swedish society,” he said. >>> | Thursday, January 28, 2010
