Meloni Wants to Ban Veils in Schools, Limit Foreign Students

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is moving to legislate the makeup of classrooms—and what their occupants can wear. Meloni announced Sunday that her government is drafting bills to prohibit face coverings in schools and to limit how many non-Italian students can be in a class, Politico Europe reports. The legislation would make Italian language lessons compulsory for parents of foreign students having "serious difficulties integrating into the school system," she said, per the AP. "Italian children cannot feel like a minority in the classroom," she told a youth event hosted by her Brothers of Italy nationalist party, arguing that having too many students who don't speak Italian turns integration into "neglect."

Meloni offered no specifics on what the cap on foreign students would look like. About 930,000 students without Italian citizenship attend Italian schools, roughly 11.6% of the total, according to research group Fondazione ISMU, which notes the number of foreign minors has actually dipped 4.5% over the past decade. The government has previously pushed to outlaw burqas and niqabs in all public spaces, framing it as a response to "Islamic separatism"; that bill is still awaiting action in the lower house of parliament. Immigration and identity have been central themes of Meloni's rise and her time in office.

Meloni specifically referred to a ban on the burqa, an all-covering dress worn by some Muslim women, and the niqab, the veil worn by the most conservative Muslim women, in which, at most, only the eyes show. But she didn't mention the hijab, the headscarf worn by some Muslim women, per the AP. Once approved by Meloni's government, the legislation would need parliamentary approval within 60 days to pass into law.