Another Spanish Town Bans Burqa in Public

MADRID -- A small town on the Spanish resort island of Mallorca has banned women from wearing burqas or face-covering Islamic veils in public places, even though only two women living there are known to do so.

Mayor Biel Serra of the town of Sa Pobla said Monday night's vote was not about cultural or religious discrimination but rather an issue of public safety and having people show their faces so they can be identified.

He told the AP Tuesday the ban also applies to other face-covering headgear like ski masks.

Sa Pobla joins a handful of other Spanish towns who have enacted some form of ban on body-covering burqas or face-covering niqabs. Biel said the two women in Sa Pobla wore the latter.