Another European country is considering banning the Islamic face veil known as the niqab.
Citing a desire to preserve the country's culture and to address "security concerns," Latvia's Ministry of Justice is drafting a law to ban face veils in public places, according to The New York Times.
Currently, only about three women in Latvia wear a face veil, the Times reported, although it's unclear how they would have obtained such a statistic.
If the Baltic nation passes the law banning face coverings in public, it will become the third country in Europe to do so. The other two are France and Belgium.
"A woman should be able to do what she wants with her body without government coersion [sic]," said Jibril Jacobs, an American Muslim author.
Others disagreed. "It is wrong to hide ones face in a Democracy. It creates fear in a time when Muslims are vulnerable to attack," said Twitter user Frank Cunningham.
In 2010, France became the first country in the world to impose a ban on wearing niqabs in public. Violators of the law must attend a class on French values.
--HS
