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On Monday 7 August, justice minister Félix Braz has presented the new draft bill on banning the cover of one's face in certain public spaces.Picture credit: Patrick Denker 

The draft bill is modelled on Dutch law.

The ban is not applicable everywhere in the public domain; it only applies in schools and educational facilities, hospitals and care centres, justice buildings, administrations and public transport. However, in those public spaces it will apply not just to employees, but also to visitors and users of these facilities.

The managers of these facilities can lift the ban on a temporary basis. Covering one’s face is explicitly allowed in a professional, sport, artistic or cultural capacity.

The ban will be added to article 563 of the penal code, and the fines range between €25 and €250.

So far, this matter was regulated at communal level.

According to a report by the Assembly of the Muslim Community of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg released last November, approximately 16 women in Luxembourg currently wore the niqab or burqa and did so of their own free will.