Activist says he’ll pay fines of Muslim women in St Gallen
Nekkaz, pictured in St Gallen on Wednesday, describes himself as an opponent of veils, but a proponent of women's freedom to wear them.
Keystone
Businessman and activist Rachid Nekkaz has said he will pay the fines that burka-wearing Muslims in St Gallen incur for breaking the canton’s recent ban on facial coverings in public.
Nekkaz arrived in St Gallen’s capital city of the same name on Wednesday, accompanied by a woman wearing a niqab. He said in a statement given outside the Hotel de Ville that all women should have the right, on the basis of religious freedom, to veil their faces, and that authorities should respect this freedom.
Nekkaz, a wealthy Algerian entrepreneur born in France, also paid four fines in canton Ticino, the first Swiss canton to forbid the burka, in 2016. Although he has described himself as being against burkas themselves, Nekkaz, who has also paid the fines of Algerian human rights activists, says he does defend the right to wear them.
Since 2010, Nekkaz said he has paid 1,553 fines in six European countries, including Switzerland, for a total of EUR 318,000 (CHF362,563), according to Swiss News Agency SDA-ATS.
St Gallen citizens approved the cantonal ban on burkas and facial coverings in public places on September 23. Cantonal police will now have the discretion to decide whether a person whose face is covered “threatens or endangers public safety or the religious or social peace”. However, as of August, very few people had faced any legal proceedings due to the ban in Ticino, five years after its enactment.
More
More
Swiss Politics
Voters approve ‘burka ban’ in St Gallen
This content was published on
Face coverings have been banned in public in canton St Gallen in northeastern Switzerland.
US says Switzerland can order fewer fighter jets amid cost hike
This content was published on
According to the American authorities, a possible reduction in the number of F-35 fighter jets ordered by Switzerland is possible to cushion the unexpected cost increase.
On wolves, ‘priority should be given to scare shots’, says expert
This content was published on
Wolf expert Jean-Marc Landry believes that Swiss Environment Minister Albert Rösti's decision to rely entirely on shooting is short-sighted.
A thousand demonstrators in Swiss capital demand climate justice
This content was published on
The climate crisis is exacerbating injustice around the world, and the current economic system benefits from colonial and patriarchal oppression, said one of the speakers.
Russian drones in Poland have ‘no impact’ on Switzerland: defence minister
This content was published on
According to Swiss Defence Minister Martin Pfister, the intrusion of Russian drones into Polish airspace "shows how unstable the situation in Europe is."
E-cars account for 10.5% of new registrations in the canton of Zug
This content was published on
Nowhere else in Switzerland are electric cars as popular as in Zug. Currently, 10.5 per cent of cars registered in the canton of Zug are purely electric, as new data from the online platform Energie Reporter and Energie Schweiz and Geoimpact show.
ETH climate researcher honoured with the German Environmental Award
This content was published on
Swiss climate researcher Sonia Isabelle Seneviratne from ETH Zurich receives the German Environmental Award 2025. She shares the prize, endowed with 500,000 euros, with the management duo of the steel galvanising company Zinq.
Police end attempted occupation of Zurich’s Platzspitz square
This content was published on
A large contingent of police prevented an attempted occupation of the Platzspitz area behind the National Museum in Zurich on Friday afternoon. They checked over 200 people and ordered them away. The group of occupiers cited anti-capitalist motives as the reason for the action.
This content was published on
On September 22, Italian-speaking Ticino became the first Swiss canton to accept such a ban, with more than 65 per cent of voters in favour. This result has boosted the hopes of those backing a future nationwide initiative. “The text is ready. It is similar to one put forward by canton Aargau and rejected by…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.