Australia’s prime minister has intervened to overturn a ban on face veils, such as the niqab, in the federal Parliament House.
The department that runs Parliament House in Canberra had announced earlier this month that “persons with facial coverings” would no longer be allowed in the open public galleries. Instead, they would be forced to sit in areas surrounded by soundproof glass – normally reserved for noisy schoolchildren, AFP reported.
The Department of Parliamentary Services said face coverings would have to be temporarily removed at the front door so that staff could “identify any person who may have been banned from entering Parliament House or who may be known, or discovered, to be a security risk”.
They would then be directed to the designated area in the public gallery to observe parliamentary proceedings.
Senate president Stephen Parry insisted the decision was “prudent” and based on advice that up to 10 people, including some men, were planning to conduct a protest inside Parliament House while “wearing concealing garments”.
However, no security authorities were consulted before the ban was implemented, local media said.
The ban was widely condemned as a segregation of Muslim women and a potential breach of anti-discrimination laws.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was not notified in advance and asked House Speaker Bronwyn Bishop, who had authorised it, to rethink the ban.
Bishop and Senator Parry have campaigned for a ban on Muslim head scarves in schools.
The controversy came as the government attempted to assure Australia’s Muslim minority that new counterterrorism laws and police raids on terror suspects’ homes in recent months were directed at countering criminal activity and not any particular religion.
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