The law needs to be amended to address the anomaly of women wearing burqas in public, according to shadow justice minister Jason Azzopardi.

In a personal comment on Facebook yesterday, Dr Azzopardi said he saw a woman wearing a burqa driving in Paola and pointed out the law needs to be amended.

Dr Azzopardi’s post was also supported by the Opposition’s spokesman on citizen’s rights and equality, Clyde Puli.

Speaking to the Times of Malta, Dr Azzopardi called for a rational debate on the issue, free from prejudice, but the inconsistency in the law needed to be addressed, he insisted.

The Criminal Code states it is a contravention if anyone “in any public place wears a mask, or disguises himself, except at the time and in the manner allowed by law”. This is punishable by up to two months’ detention.

Human Rights Watch argues against a ban: “A legal ban in Europe on the wearing of the burqa in public life would be just as much a violation of the rights of those women who wish to wear it as is the forcing of the veil on those women who do not wish to wear it in, for example, Iran or Saudi Arabia”.

Read more in the Times of Malta.