Non-Muslim Senator Wears Burqa in Protest
Australian Sen. Pauline Hanson wears a burqa in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Monday, Nov. 24, 2025. (Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP)
Eight years after first sparking outrage by entering Australia’s Parliament wearing a burqa, Pauline Hanson repeated the act on Monday. Hanson, the leader of the anti-immigration One Nation party, again appeared on the Senate floor in the garment—which she has long argued should be banned—according to the BBC.
Her second stunt drew the same kind of backlash as in 2017. Mehreen Faruqi, a Muslim Greens senator representing New South Wales, called the display “blatant racism,” while Foreign Minister Penny Wong and others also condemned the move.
Hanson wore the burqa shortly after fellow lawmakers blocked her latest attempt to introduce a bill banning the garment in public spaces. She later defended the display on social media, saying that if Parliament refused to outlaw what she described as “oppressive, radical, non-religious head garb,” she would highlight the issue herself so Australians “know what’s at stake,” per the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Hanson has a long history of incendiary statements about immigration and minorities. Her previous wearing of a burqa in 2017 was part of a similar campaign, and she has made repeated claims over the years—including that Australia was being “swamped by Muslims” in 2016 and “swamped by Asians” two decades before. Monday’s incident caused such uproar that the Senate suspended proceedings for about 90 minutes.
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