(Strasbourg) “A ban on wearing clothes that hide the face in public places is not in breach of the Convention”: this has been stated by two rulings of the European Court for Human Rights, issued this morning, about two different appeals from Belgium. One such case is about two women, Samia Belcacemi (a Belgian citizen) and Yamina Oussar (a Moroccan citizen), born in 1981 and 1973, respectively. They appealed against a 2011 act that placed a ban on niqab, the veil that covers the face except for the eyes, in all public places. The second case is a similar one and was brought by Fouzia Dakir, also a Belgian citizen, born in 1977 and living in Dison: she too used to wear a niqab, of her own free will, until in 2008 a municipal ruling in Pepinsterl, Veriviers and Dison banned it, in public places. In both cases, the Court believed that “the controversial ban aims at providing the conditions of living together as a protection of other people’s rights and freedoms, that can be considered essential, therefore, in a democratic society”. According to the Court, which also invoked the French precedent, “a concern for meeting the minimal requirements of social life can be considered to be a protection of other people’s rights and freedoms”. Therefore, the Belgian law considers niqab “incompatible” and therefore forbidden, due to the “methods of social communication” that apply in Belgium.