'Faces must be uncovered': Meloni plans to ban burqas and niqabs in Italian schools and cap foreign pupils per class
From the Newshound archive · first published 20 September 2026 · last updated 21 September 2026.
Giorgia Meloni, who presented the school dress and integration package at a Rome youth festival where audiences rose to applaud, plans to ban face-covering garments while leaving the hijab conspicuously exempt.Tahir Ashrafi and the Most Rev Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London, at Lambeth Palace. Meloni's proposed ban covers only face-concealing garments, leaving the hijab — which does not obscure the face — outside the…
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has outlined proposals to prohibit burqas and niqabs in schools, limit how many foreign pupils can sit in any single classroom, and require parents of foreign children deemed slow to integrate to study Italian. She presented the package at the Gioventù Nazionale youth festival in Rome, where the audience rose to applaud, and said the measures would go to cabinet shortly before requiring parliamentary approval within 60 days.
Meloni was unequivocal on equality: 'In Italy, young women cannot cover their bodies under the guise of tradition.'
The hijab, which leaves the face visible, was conspicuously left out of the prohibition — only garments covering the full face were included.
The announcement is widely read as an appeal to voters ahead of next year's general election, with the surging far-right Future of the Nation party pressing for even tougher restrictions.
