Muslim woman fined £430 for wearing burqa in Italy

The growing European row over bans on Muslim veils spread to Italy yesterday after a Tunisian-born woman was fined for wearing a burqa, the first time such a penalty has been imposed in the country.

Amel Marmouri, 26, was stopped by carabinieri officers in a spot check outside a post office in Novara in northern Italy and given a 500 euro (£431) fine, payable within 90 days. She at first declined to lift her veil to be identified because the officers were male, but agreed when a municipal police patrol which included a woman officer was summoned.

The fine was imposed under a city ordinance introduced in January in Novara banning any clothing which “prevents the immediate identification of the wearer inside public buildings, schools and hospitals”. It marked the first time the regulation had been enforced.



Massimo Giordano, the Mayor of Novara, said the regulation was based on a 1975 national anti terrorist law making it illegal for men or women to be in public place with their faces covered. Similar local regulations have been passed at Treviso in the Veneto, Fermignano in the Marche and Montegrotto Terme near Padua.

Ben Salah Braim, 36, the woman's husband and a building worker, said he would respect the regulation, but would have to confine his wife at home since the Koran forbade other men to see her face.

“Amel may not be looked at by other men,” he said. “Our religion is explicit on this,” he said. “If this is the law in Italy, what can I do? I don't know how I am going to find the money to pay the 500 Euro fine.”