Burqa bans, headscarves and veils: a timeline of legislation in the west European states have moved over the years to outlaw Muslim headwear in public Matthew Weaver Tue 14 Mar 2017 13.56 GMT Last modified on Tue 8 Aug 2017 19.38 BST Women protest outside the French embassy in London. Last summer France’s PM defended municipal bans on burkini swimwear. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo The movement to limit women wearing headscarves and Muslim veils, such as the burqa and niqab, has been growing in Europe for more than a decade. Now the European court of justice, the EU’s highest court, has ruled that employers can ban staff from wearing headscarves, its first decision on the issue of employees wearing visible religious symbols at work. Europe's right hails EU court's workplace headscarf ban ruling ...