Government weighing a ban on a veil rarely seen

Migration Minister Thanos Plevris has opened debate on potentially banning full facial coverings worn for religious reasons, responding to a parliamentary question from a lawmaker of the Greek Solution party.

Plevris acknowledged no regulatory framework has been finalized, saying authorities are studying legislation in other countries and existing case law.

Economist Antigone Lyberaki, a Panteion University professor with extensive experience in refugee integration programs, questioned the rationale. “We are going through the process of inventing an adversary,” she said, noting that in years visiting Greek refugee reception camps she had never encountered women with fully covered faces.

Lyberaki warned that bans typically produce unintended consequences – in Britain, similar restrictions were rejected over fears conservative Muslim families would simply forbid daughters from attending school. She added that the debate “conceals, in reality, an Islamophobia,” calling restrictions counterproductive to building open, free societies.

Kathimerini