Switzerland’s Burqa Ban: A Crossroads of Freedom, Identity, and…

January 3, 2025

At the call of midnight on December 31 of the year 2024, Switzerland has put in the practice of a new burqa ban, and in this way the question of freedom and culture freedom along with the authority of the state comes again in the front line. It bans full-face veils, like the niqab, in organisations, with penalties of up to CHF 1’000 (approx. 307,700 PKR). This movement coming in a country that once upheld the principle of neutrality and democracy showcases society’s constant fight to uphold individual freedom against the process of assimilation.

The basis for the burqa ban can be traced back to a 2021 referendum in which 51.2 percent of Swiss citizens voted in favour of the ban to explore the extent of diversity in Swiss society. The right-wing supporters of the ban include the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), who stated that such a ban is important for security and integration as well as conserving Swiss culture. Critics, on the other hand, have condemned it as an infringement of the right to religious freedom, particularly for Muslim women who prefer to wear the burqa as an item of faith.

Such characteristics of direct democracy made the law legitimate in Switzerland since people voted on the national level. However, the decisive margin on the right side should not mask the fact that the fighting to balance personal freedom and more and more emerging cultural concerns remains a tallying on for the nation.

The new law is to prohibit the wearing of the burqa and the niqab in any public place or in a private domain opened for the public. Some times can be excused by medical conditions, religious purposes, climatic circumstances, or some events that are not a threat to the social order. It has been criticised as mimicking legislation existing in France, Belgium, and other European countries, which has led to protests and court cases. Such measures have led to various questions with regard to the governments of Europe on the issue of the freedom of religious practice in society and with regards to the integration of multiculturalism.

Currently, Muslims are few in number in Switzerland but are scattered in all the regions of the country. The cantons with the highest proportion of Muslims living in them in 2019 were Basel-Stadt, where 8.17% of the population were Muslims, followed by Glarus with 7.72%, Solothurn coming third at 7.63%, while Zurich and Geneva had 6.49 & 6.24% of Muslims, respectively. However, what also emerges is that only Geneva from the cantons detailed here has a Muslim population greater than the Swiss average of 5.40%. Immigrants account for 88.3% of the Muslim population, primarily from the former Yugoslavia (56.4%), Turkey (20.2%), and Africa (6%). There are barely 7 to 10 thousand native Muslims in the country, out of a total of 400 thousand people.

Nevertheless, not all Muslim women living in Switzerland wear the burqa. This is a practice carried out by a minority of Muslim conservatives comprising the Salafists among the Sunni as well as certain Shia Muslims of Iranian decent. This raises important questions: do you think that burqa could turn into the weapon of Muslim feminists to defy such legislation for women? If such a movement takes hold, it will not only destabilise Switzerland but also cause severe consequences across Europe, the United States, and other countries with increased tensions.

Muslim communities are already more managing wider socio-political concerns such as the Palestine crises and Arab Spring. Measures like the burqa ban, to which Muslims can hardly fail reacting as discriminated, excluded, marginalised, lumpen people, are experienced as backlash laws. Sceptics have a lot of criticism on this, saying that such measures only worsen the situation in the country and do not solve anything.

Supporters of the ban on burqa argue that this measure was introduced to advance the process of socialisation and increase the level of safety, while estimating that face coverings are obstacles to integration and potential threats to security, particularly in situations where identification is necessary. They stated that such measures are necessary for the protection of the national cultural integrity and security of spaces.

On the other hand, the opponents view the ban as an attack on the rights of religiously practicing people and as the destruction of Swiss values. This law only makes it even more possible for us to be isolated.” This is not an issue of safety; it is an issue of power, opined a Swiss Muslim woman along with other human rights organisations. It will be recalled that these critics argue that such laws risk sharpening divisions in societies rather than bringing them together.

It is a part of European trends—Switzerland has banned burqa; the same law regulates attire in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Some of these strategies that the advocates of secularism and national identity argue for have been accused of discriminating specifically against Muslim women.

Finally, the most important question in this contest is how the identity and unity of modern society with the multicultural difference can be reconciled. While Europe struggles with this question, Switzerland has made things even more complicated. The implications of this work will probably not only stay for Switzerland but also can contribute to multiethnic nations’ debates in other states.

While Switzerland continues with the process of enactment of ban-regulation regarding burqa, it is still hazy regarding its repercussions. Thus, the question out of interest will be whether the law will help to increase social solidarity or, on the contrary, strengthen the existing social divide. Are tolerance, and especially any kind of religious tolerance, and assimilation harmony or opposition in their eternal struggle?

Still now, Switzerland stays at the crossroad in question that serves as a prototype of many states in the modern world being in search of the optimal solution to the conflict of identity between an individual and society. The consequences of this experiment will be most dramatic, both for Switzerland, which has already seen the result of the plan in action, and for broad international debates over multiculturalism and other questions of living together.

Syed Salman Mehdi is an IT specialist, environmental advocate, and freelance writer.