Italy’s Meloni plans to ban burkas, niqabs in schools and cap foreign pupils in classrooms

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday she will soon introduce a measure to her government that would cap the number of foreign pupils in classrooms and ban the wearing of burkas and niqabs in schools.

Meloni told the youth wing of her nationalist conservative Brothers of Italy party that the measure would also make Italian language lessons compulsory for parents of foreign pupils having “serious difficulties integrating into the school system”.

“For us, anyone who comes to Italy and wants to build their future here must learn our language, understand our culture, and respect our rules,” she said to a standing ovation at the Gioventu Nazionale national festival in Rome. “It is the only serious way to welcome them.”

Meloni specifically referred to a ban on the burka, an all-covering dress worn by some Muslim women, and the niqab, the veil worn by the most conservative Muslim women, in which, at most, only the eyes show. But Meloni did not mention the hijab, the headscarf worn by some Muslim women.