Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has announced plans to ban the burqa and niqab in schools, stating that “equality between men and women is not negotiable.”
Speaking over the weekend at Fenix, the festival of her Brothers of Italy party’s youth wing, the Prime Minister said the ban would be enacted through a new cabinet decree, warning that failing to integrate pupils leaves them facing “marginalisation.”
Meloni argued that the presence of high numbers of non-Italian speakers in classes damages the educational prospects of immigrant and native children alike.
“If there is only one child in a class who does not understand Italian, that child will probably manage, with classmates and teachers, to learn the language and integrate quickly,” Meloni said.
“But if the children who do not understand the language of the lesson become many, or even the majority, that is no longer integration. That is abandonment. And the only thing those children risk learning is marginalisation.”
She told attendees that native Italian pupils must never feel sidelined within their own education system.
“I also add that it is unacceptable that in an Italian classroom the children who feel pushed into a corner should be the Italian children because they have become the minority,” she said.
“That cannot be done.”
Meloni stressed that newcomers wishing to settle in Italy must fully integrate by embracing local cultural norms and language.
“For us, anyone who comes to Italy and wants to build a future here must learn our language, know our culture, respect our rules,” she said.
“That is the only serious way to welcome people.”
The Prime Minister outlined the legislative measures being drafted for the cabinet, which include parental language classes, classroom caps, and prohibitions on full-face veils.
“So a measure is about to go to the Council of Ministers that introduces by law a maximum number of foreign students per class,” Meloni said.
“And not only that: it also introduces an obligation for the parents of foreign students with serious school-integration problems to learn Italian, and a ban on the burqa and niqab at school.”
She affirmed that educational institutions must guarantee that female students do not conceal their faces under the pretext of tradition.
“Because you go to school with your face uncovered, and because in Italy no one, in the name of a real or supposed tradition, can decide that a young woman must hide,” she said.
“Equality between men and women is not negotiable: not in our streets, not in our schools.”
The proposal to ban Islamic face coverings in schools has received strong endorsement from coalition partner and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.
Speaking from the stage at a party rally in Pontida, the League leader called on the government to adopt a decisive stance against religious veils, according to a report by Italian state broadcaster RAI News.
Salvini urged the governing coalition to reject the garments completely and resist Islamic extremism.
“The danger is not an invasion of Soviet tanks, it is the political use of the Quran and Islamic fanaticism,” he said.
“On this as well, we call our allies to a positive challenge: immediately say no to the construction of any mosque, demand transparency, say no to the burqa and the Islamic veil once and for all, and free ourselves from submission,” Salvini said.
“It takes courage, friends of the center-right.
“In Italy and in Europe, the left is complicit with these fanatics and is out looking for new voters and new slaves.”
Under the education decree announced by Meloni, the government intends to impose a statutory cap of 30% on the proportion of foreign students in each class.
As reported by RAI News, the restriction is expected to exempt European Union passport holders due to European legal protections. Second-generation students with demonstrated Italian language proficiency will also be excluded, though the evaluation procedures are yet to be established.
Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara previously announced the quota proposal in August, stating that regional school offices would oversee pupil allocation across classes and local schools to avoid heavy concentrations.
Valditara noted that municipal authorities must also coordinate housing policies to prevent segregated districts, highlighting practical limits on pupil commutes.
“It is obvious that we cannot send a student to study several kilometers away,” Valditara said.
A 30% limit was originally introduced as a general guideline under a 2010 ministerial circular by then-education minister Mariastella Gelmini, though local schools frequently granted exemptions in high-density migrant neighbourhoods.
Under current Italian law, wearing a headscarf or full-face veil in public is not an offence. Italy’s Council of State has ruled that wearing a veil for cultural or religious reasons can constitute a justified cause, provided the wearer complies with identification requirements by removing the garment when necessary.
Across the continent, statutory restrictions on public face coverings are already in place in France, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, and the Netherlands, with Portugal’s president recently signing similar legislation to guarantee equal dignity between men and women.
In Austria, Chancellor Christian Stocker announced constitutional plans in September to ban political Islam in schools and broader society, citing demographic shifts in Vienna where Muslim pupils now form a relative majority.
The European Court of Human Rights has consistently validated national bans on face coverings, finding them compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights when enacted to protect interpersonal communication and communal life in democratic societies.