Italy’s ex-Minister of the Interior Roberto Maroni has strongly refused to sign on a decree banning the Islamic female headscarf, known as hijab.

Italy’s ex-Minister of the Interior Roberto Maroni has strongly refused to sign on a decree banning the Islamic female headscarf, known as hijab.

“If the Virgin Mary appears wearing a veil on all her pictures, how can you ask me to sign on a hijab ban law?” he has been cited as saying.

Italian parliamentarians have suggested that wearing the Islamic headscarf in public places bears a criminal responsibility.

In 2004, local politicians in the country’s north evoked old public order laws against the wearing of masks. The push meant to justify efforts to stop Muslim women from wearing the burka’, a cover-all headdress.