Earlier this year, the University of Lucerne claimed in a survey that no one in Switzerland currently wears a burqa, and that only around 30 women wear the niqab.
Switzerland voted on Sunday in a referendum about whether to ban «full facial coverings» in public places, with exit polls reportedly indicating that a slim majority of 51% supports the move. Here’s a brief background on the so-called «burqa ban». The text of the initiative does not specifically single out Muslim veils, saying only that «no one shall cover their face in public, nor in areas accessible to the public or in areas where services are ordinarily accessible to all». The proposed ban, however, is mainly seen as targeting minority Muslim women living in Switzerland and wearing niqabs (a veil over the lower half of the face), burqas (covering both body and face), and other face-covering garments. Muslims make up about 5.2% of Switzerland’s 8.6 million people. Most Muslims in Switzerland have their roots in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Turkey. The measure was spearheaded by the Egerkinger Komitee, an activist group comprised of politicians from the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) whose motto is «resistance against the claims to power of political Islam in Switzerland».
