SWISS GOVERNMENT REJECTS BURQA BAN. An initiative to ban niqabs and burqas by Swiss People’s party, a right-wing political party, has been rejected by the Swiss upper parliament. The clothes in question are generally worn by Muslim women; it covers their full body and face. The debate over such coverings has gathered widespread cultural tensions in a few European regions. The vote by Council of State went 26 to 9 against the measure. Interestingly, Ticino, an Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, had pushed in a ban on wearing burqas in 2016. There were four abstentions. The...

WASHINGTON (RNS) New Army regulations will allow soldiers to wear turbans, beards and hijabs under most circumstances, reflecting a change Sikhs have sought for years.

Source: Army: Soldiers can wear turbans, beards, hijabs | Religion News Service

PARIS — Armed police surrounding Muslim women on beaches and ordering them to remove their modest clothes or leave. Calls from onlookers to “go back to where you came from.” Public humiliation and ostracism with echoes of the morals police of theocratic countries like Iran or Saudi Arabia, not a country that sees its values as a paragon of Western freedoms.

Source: French ‘Burkini’ Bans Provoke Backlash as Armed Police Confront Beachgoers - The New York Times

PARIS — France’s highest administrative court on Friday overturned a town’s ban on burkinis, the full-body swimwear used by some Muslim women, setting a precedent that challenges similar bans in at least 30 other municipalities, most of them on the French Riviera.

Source: Court Overturns ‘Burkini’ Ban in French Town - The New York Times