Rome: Italian police fined a Muslim woman for wearing a full Islamic veil in a street in the northern city of Novara, possibly the first such incident in Italy, city officials said Tuesday.
"City police ticketed her last night and she will have to pay a 500-euro (650-dollar) fine," Mauro Franzinelli of the Novara municipal police told AFP.
"As far as I know this is a first in Italy," he said adding that the woman could appeal.
Novara, in Italy's northeastern Piedmont region, is a stronghold of the anti-immigration Northern League, a key party in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government.
The woman, a Tunisian national, was stopped by police officers outside a post office in the company of her husband.
When her husband refused to have her identified by male officers they called in a patrol comprising a woman officer.
"City hall adopted a decree in late January banning the burqa in public places and their vicinity, which is based on a commentary by the interior ministry who received a copy of the draft," said Franzinelli, who is also a local Northern League official.
Covering one's face - with a veil or a motorcycle helmet - in public has been banned in Italy since 1975.
What do you think of this issue? Should countries be able to implement their own rules? Is this unfair targeting? Or were the officers right in fining the woman?
