Immigration & refugees

Italy's Meloni Plans Burqa Ban, Foreign Pupil Cap in Schools

Is this overdue common sense or segregation being sold as reform?

Published SEP 21

Italy's Meloni Plans Burqa Ban, Foreign Pupil Cap in Schools

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Above: Giorgia Meloni speaks at the Fenix event organized by Gioventù Nazionale in Rome on Sept. 20. Image credit: Vincenzo Nuzzolese/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

The Spin

Right narrative

Italy is finally doing what the rest of Europe should have done a decade ago. Packing classrooms with kids who can't speak the national language creates parallel societies, and capping the number of foreign pupils per class will finally address that. Banning the burqa and niqab in schools is common sense, because equality between men and women isn't up for negotiation in Italian classrooms.

Giorgia Meloni on X

Mario Nawfal on X

Left narrative

A headcount cap is blatant segregation being sold as reform. Most foreign-citizen pupils were born in Italy and speak the local dialect, and in shrinking towns, those kids are the only reason the last classroom stays open. Banning the veil punishes the women who choose it, which the European Court of Human Rights has already rejected as an abuse of basic liberty.

ITS Journal

Narendra Goswami on X