Strange times in Catalunya. More and more city and village administrations are introducing local ordinances that prohibit the wearing of a burqa or other face-covering Islam-inspired dresses inside public buildings. As if the streets were full of burqa-wearing women ready to storm city hall. The craze is such that even villages where there are no immigrants at all are thinking about introducing such a measure preventively in case a burqa-wearing immigrant wanted to move there. And parties on the political right are insisting that the words "burqa" or "niqab" are included in these ordinances; the prohibition of entering a public building with your face covered does not do it for them - pure knee-jerk populism in an election year (regional elections to the Catalan parliament in November 2010). Surveys say that a majority of the population would prohibit the burqa in public places, i.e. on the streets in general, but local administrations can only rule on public buildings.
Meanwhile the city of Barcelona has got a different problem at the same time: apparently a lot of tourists like to wander around Las Ramblas in the heart of the old town or use the metro with nothing on but a bathing suit or bikini; often not a nice view, and apart from aesthetics a potential public health problem. Therefore, the city will fine these "nudist" tourists, but first wants to raise awareness to the problem with an information campaign ("dress well") and stickers like the one pictured down here. We are living in strange times.
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