Portugal enacts ban on face veils, joining Europe’s widening crackdown
President Seguro signed bill into law and though its final wording avoids naming Islam, measure is widely understood to target Muslim women who wear niqab
LISBON (MNTV) — Portugal has become the latest European country to ban face coverings in public spaces, after President António José Seguro signed into law a measure widely dubbed the “burqa law” — legislation that experts say singles out Muslim women under the guise of neutral rules on identification.
Seguro promulgated the decree on August 18, according to a statement from the Belém Palace, the presidential seat in Lisbon.
“The face must be considered a central element of human identity and communication,” he said, while acknowledging that the issue was one of “great social and cultural sensitivity” in which rights and duties were extremely difficult to balance.
He said amendments introduced during the parliamentary process had persuaded him to sign it.
What law does
The law prohibits clothing designed to conceal the face or prevent a person’s identification in public spaces.
It also makes it an offence to force someone to cover their face for reasons related to gender, religion, age or origin — with that coercion punishable by up to three years in prison. Individuals who breach the ban face fines ranging from €150 to €3,000.
There are exemptions for health, professional, artistic and weather-related reasons, and face coverings remain permitted in places of worship, diplomatic missions and on aircraft.
Notably, the final legislation does not mention Islam or name the burqa or niqab.
The bill originated with the far-right Chega party, led by André Ventura, and earlier versions referred directly to Islamic veils; those references were stripped out during the legislative process and the measure recast as a general rule on facial identification.
Portugal’s parliament approved it on July 17, with the support of the governing centre-right coalition and far-right parties.
Left-wing parties voted against.
Ban with few obvious targets
One of the starker features of the law is how few people it will actually affect.
As Al Jazeera has noted, only a small minority of Muslim women in Europe cover their faces, and in Portugal full-face veils are very rare — a point experts say underlines that the measure is symbolic rather than practical.
The bill drew negative opinions during its passage from the Portuguese Bar Association, the High Council of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Portuguese Association of Women Lawyers, alongside warnings about its potential unconstitutionality. Amnesty International’s office in Portugal called the law discriminatory and a threat to human rights.
Writing in the Muslim outlet 5Pillars, observers framed the measure as a “dog-whistle” that strips women of agency while claiming to protect their liberty — posing the question of why a woman’s freedom to choose her own clothing should not extend to her right to decide whether to wear a niqab.
Part of European pattern
Portugal now joins France, Belgium, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands among European states with full or partial bans on face coverings, while Spain’s Balearic Islands weigh similar proposals driven by the hard-right Vox.
The timing is pointed: the EU’s own Fundamental Rights Agency has warned of rising discrimination against Muslims across the bloc, with roughly one in two reporting they face bias in daily life.
For visibly Muslim women, the fear is that they are becoming an increasingly acceptable target for restrictions dressed in the language of security and identity.
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