Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/554768
2 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 12 AUGUST 2015 News MP calls for banning of the burqa: 'decision requires rational debate' MIRIAM DALLI WHEN a 24-year-old French woman took her government to the European Court of Human Rights in opposition to France's ban on full-face veils, the court upheld the French law. The woman, of Pakistani origin, had argued that the ban on wear- ing the veil in public violated her freedom of religion and expres- sion, and gave rise to "discrimina- tion based on gender, religion and ethnic origin, to the detriment of women who wear the full-face veil". The European Court's Grand Chamber however had declared that there had been no violation of Articles 8, 9 and 14 and, among others, the European judges took into account France's argument that the face "played a significant role in social interaction". In the European Union, only Belgium has so far applied a na- tion-wide ban. When a woman wearing a full- face veil was spotted driving a car in Malta a few weeks ago, a photo was immediately posted online fuelling a discussion that, else- where in Europe, had been raging for years. So when Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi took to Facebook call- ing for amendments to the law about the burqa, his Facebook was inundated with messages of support. Azzopardi, a lawyer by profes- sion, told MaltaToday that the is- sue was about consistency of the laws, social cohesion and security issues. Article 338 of the Criminal Code states that it is a contravention against public order if anyone "in any public place, wears any mask, or disguises himself, except at the time and in the manner allowed by law". This is punishable with up to two months detention , as any other contravention. "So if the law clearly wants visual recognition for obvious reasons, does the wearing of a burqa walk hand in hand with this prohibi- tion or go counter? What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gan- der," Azzopardi argued, speaking in his personal capacity as a citi- zen and a lawyer. Referring to the ECHR's judge- ment, Azzopardi said that the court had upheld France's ban on wearing a burka or a niqab in pub- lic, ruling that the 2010 law on re- ligious headgear does not breach Muslim women's human rights. The Strasbourg court ruled in the case brought by a devout French Muslim that there had been no violation of her right to respect for private and family life, no breach of her right to freedom of thought, conscience and reli- gion, and no breach of the prohi- bition of discrimination. "This judgement does away with any accusation that a ban on wearing the burqa in public infringes on fundamental human rights. On the contrary, social cohesion necessitated the ban in France. Is this argument applica- ble to France only? I am staunchly in favour of social cohesion and social integration. I am against ghettoisation. I am against any form of unlawful discrimination," Azzopardi said But the wearing of a burqa in a society not accustomed to it gives rise to other considerations, such as security issues, the Nationalist MP added. After the spate of bank robber- ies in the late 70s carried out by robbers wearing helmets, it is prohibited for someone to enter a bank wearing a crash helmet. It is illegal – punishable with a fine – for car windows to be colour tinted. "The Criminal Code prohibits the wearing of masks or any other disguise. The reasoning is very clear: lack of visibility increases either the risk of the commission of a crime or increases the diffi- culty for the Police in their inves- tigations," Azzopardi said. But the MP also felt that a full- face veil could serve as a security threat in case of a terrorist attack: "In view of what is happening around us, tragedies did occur abroad by men or women wearing burqas hiding explosives. Who is able to give a guaranatee that it is impossible to happen closer to home, God forbid?" Azzopardi went on to add that any decision to ban the use of a full-faced veil in the public should not be based on emotional grounds and should not be influ- enced by prejudice. "It should be a decision taken after careful consideration, a ra- tional debate and after hearing out the law enforcement authori- ties." A woman wearing a burqa as she is driving in Malta Opening IVF to surrogates and sperm donors 'egoistic', says Women's Council National Women's Council says opening embryo freezing to surrogates or sperm donors akin to 'purchasing commodity' MATTHEW VELLA THE National Council of Women has struck out against the introduc- tion of embryo freezing to Malta's law on in vitro fertilization, which only allows the freezing of female ova. The law was introduced by the Na- tionalist government in late 2012, but the new Labour government is considering making embryo freez- ing legal to improve the efficiency of IVF. "Bringing a child into the world is not a right, either to a male or female who wish to become a par- ent, because in so doing they might be ignoring the rights of the third person in this equation, the child," NCW president Mary Gaerty said. "One understands the pain of those who wish to become parents and are unable to achieve this aspi- ration, but must someone's desires be constructed on egoism without a thought for the basic needs of the unborn child who will start life al- ready missing out on the most es- sential formation for the personal development in life as a human be- ing?" The NCW wants to retain oocyte freezing, as opposed to embryo freezing, claiming this will protect embryos from being discarded or aborted, or left frozen "in limbo where this new life cannot decide for himself/herself the right to be born, since someone else decided their fate for them." Malta's Embryo Protection Act forbids sperm donation or surroga- cy, and is only available to opposite- sex couples in stable relationships. Gaerty however claimed that al- lowing gays and single parents to access IVF through surrogacy and sperm donation would be akin to "purchasing a commodity", and asked whether IVF children could legally know who their sperm donor fathers or surrogate mothers were. "When a woman is pregnant, she is encouraged to bond with the child in her womb, talk, caress, sing and for the baby to grow in the love of the mother. But what bonding will this child receive if the mother has no interest in the child, except the financial aspect? This child will be abandoned at birth by the person who brought her/him in this world," Gaerty said of surrogates who give birth to children in adoption to par- ents unable to have a child. "And what about the father of the child, what measures will he take to make it possible for him to bond? The baby on the other hand is grow- ing in the absence of this sensitive human contact, growing in a body that is just serving as an incubator for nine months," Gaerty said of male gamete donors. Found by man walking his dog CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Holm was on holiday in Gozo with her grandchildren, her son-in-law and his brother, when she was report- ed missing. The group arrived in Gozo on 19 July and were sched- uled to go back home on 26 July. They were staying in Marsalforn. Investigators will also have to figure out how Holm's body ended up in the valley, 3km away from Marsalforn. Holm supposedly left the group to go shopping. The police were informed of her dis- appearance three hours after she separated from the group. A man who was walking his dog in the valley found the body, two days after the woman was report- ed missing. Her daughter came to Malta as soon as she was informed of Holm's disappearance. Mal- taToday understands that whilst Holm's relatives were allowed to leave the island, the son-in-law is still in Malta. Download the MaltaToday App now