Woman fined €500 for wearing burqa in Italy

ITALIAN police fined a woman €500 for wearing a full Islamic veil – the first punishment of its kind in Italy, but the latest in a wave of sanctions against the burqa in Europe.

The 26-year-old Tunisian woman was walking in a street in the northwestern city of Novara on Monday when she was stopped by a patrol, local police said.

“City police ticketed her last night and she will have to pay a €500 fine,” Novara municipal police official Mauro Franzinelli said. “As far as I know this is a first in Italy.”