What fines or prison terms does Denmark impose for wearing a burqa or niqab in public?
Executive summary
Denmark’s national law, passed in May 2018, bans full-face veils (commonly referred to as niqab or burqa) in public places and enforces it with fines; reporting and legal summaries cite an initial fine of 1,000 kroner for first offences and escalating fines up to 10,000 kroner for repeat offences [1] [2]. Recent political debate in 2025 has revived proposals to extend the ban into schools and universities, but sources do not give new penalty figures tied to those 2025 proposals [3] [4].
1. What the law actually forbids — a narrow public-face-covering ban
Denmark’s legislation targets full-face coverings in public rather than all Islamic dress: the 2018 bill makes wearing items that cover the face in public places illegal — commonly described in coverage as a “burqa/niqab ban” — while other headscarves that do not conceal the face remain lawful under that law [1] [4].
2. The penalties reported: fines, escalating by repeat offences
Legal summaries and human-rights commentators report a graduated fines scheme: a first-time offence has been reported as 1,000 kroner and successive offences may see fines rise, with some summaries citing penalties up to 10,000 kroner by a fourth offence [2]. Contemporary mainstream reporting of the 2018 law notes that it is enforced by fines rather than by blanket imprisonment language in initial coverage [1].
3. Where claims of jail time come from — inconsistent reporting and commentary
Some secondary outlets and opinion pieces assert the law could expose wearers to “jail time,” but the concrete legal reporting tied to Denmark’s 2018 ban in widely cited coverage emphasizes fines [1] [2]. A commercial/legal explainer repeats language that fines or “even jail time” are possible, but the primary mainstream account cited here (BBC) does not list imprisonment as an explicit statutory penalty [5] [1]. Available sources do not mention a statutory prison term tied to the original 2018 public-face-covering prohibition.
4. Political context and efforts to expand the ban (2025 reporting)
In 2025, Denmark’s prime minister publicly sought to extend the existing ban to educational institutions and to remove prayer rooms from those settings, framing the move around concerns of social control and oppression; news coverage frames this as a revival or expansion of the 2018 policy, not a fundamentally new penalty regime [3] [4]. Sources show active political debate and proposed extensions, but they do not provide new penalty schedules or confirm that criminal sentences beyond fines would be imposed as part of those proposals [3] [4].
5. Legal and human-rights framing — critics and defenders
Critics argue the ban targets a tiny minority and restricts religious freedom and women’s rights; human-rights commentators note the law’s direct effect on those who practice full-face veiling [2] [6]. Supporters and some opinion pieces frame the ban as protecting civic interaction and integration, describing it as a preventative, non-punitive assertion of shared public norms [7]. Both perspectives are present in the sources and explain why the measure remains politically resonant.
6. What the sources do not say — limits of the public record provided
The supplied reporting does not give an explicit statutory text with detailed enforcement procedures or an official Danish government table of fines and penalties for 2018 or 2025 proposals; available sources do not mention a legislated prison sentence tied to the 2018 ban, nor do they provide new penalty figures attached to the 2025 proposed expansion [1] [3] [4] [2]. If you need the precise current statutory wording or enforcement guidelines (including whether criminal sanctions beyond fines are now codified), those documents or official Danish government publications are not included in the material available here.
7. Bottom line — what you can reliably say now
Based on mainstream legal summaries and reporting, Denmark’s ban on full-face veils carries monetary fines — commonly reported as 1,000 kroner for a first offence with escalating fines for repeat offences up to 10,000 kroner — and mainstream coverage of the 2018 law does not cite statutory prison terms [1] [2]. Political efforts in 2025 aim to broaden where the ban applies, but the sources provided do not document any newly imposed prison sentences tied to those proposals [3] [4].
If you want, I can look specifically for the official Danish statute text or government guidance to quote penalty clauses directly; those legal primary sources are not included in the current set of documents.