Greece could ban burqas from being worn in public, Greek Minister of Immigration and Asylum Thanos Plevris said during a current affairs show by Greek newspaper TA NEA.
While no decision has been reached yet, the discussion is already at an advanced phase, the Minister said. Plevris and Vice Minister Sevi Voloudaki have been studying the respective laws applied in different countries.
The ban in Greece would only concern the burqa and full face coverage and not the Islamic headscarf in general “unless the latter is imposed against one’s will, as is the case with minors.”
“The burqa is an offense to women’s and human dignity in general,” Plevris commented to host Katerina Panagopoulou. “We shouldn’t be afraid to say that Europe is built on the values of the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, Christianity, and the Enlightment; and any pressure on a human being—women specifically, in this case—is contrary to those.”
Application of burqa ban in Europe and Greece
This is not the first time that a Greek government minister has raised the issue; Plevris’ predecessor, Makis Voridis, was the first to have revealed in summer 2025 that there had been discussions to ban burqas at universities in Greece. The debate about restrictions on Islamic headdresses (such as hijabs and burqas) worn by women in Europe dates back to the early 2000s.
Surprisingly, the first country to have banned headscarves in universities was an Islamic one, Turkey, in 1984. Naturally so, the first case on restrictions on Muslim women’s clothing to have appeared before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) Court was a case from Turkey in 2004.
The landmark decision on that case, which found no violation of the rights to education, privacy, or freedom of religion, paved the way for the launch of what became a widespread ban on Islamic headdresses across Europe in the following years. In 2011, France became the first country to apply such law, banning full-face veils, including the burqa and niqab, in all public spaces.
As of October 2025, the following European nations had introduced full or partial bans of the burqa: Austria, France, Belgium, Denmark, Bulgaria, Portugal, the Netherlands (in public schools, hospitals and on public transport), Germany (partial bans in some states), Italy (in some localities), Spain (in some localities of Catalonia), Russia (in the Stavropol Krai), Luxembourg, Switzerland, Norway (at nursery schools, public schools, and universities), Kosovo (in public schools), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (in courts and other legal institutions).
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