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France bans full-face veil in public spaces
[Al Arabiya Latest] Through a crushing majority, the French lower house of parliament voted on Tuesday a law approving the ban of Muslim women from wearing a full-face veil in public spacesThe bill will now go to the Senate in September, but opponents of the ban in its proposed form worry that it will eventually be overturned by the judges of the Constitutional Council, France's highest legal body. For, while President Nicolas Sarkozy's determination to ban the niqab and the burqa won enough political support to carry it, opponents argue that it breaches French and European human rights legislation. The bill defines public space very broadly, including not just government buildings and public transport, but all streets, markets and thoroughfares, private businesses and entertainment venues. Similar laws are pending in Belgium, Spain and some Italian municipalities, but the ban is particularly sensitive in France, whose rundown city suburbs are home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority. Last week, Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told lawmakers debating the bill that its adoption would assert French values and help to better integrate Muslim communities into the national way of life. She said being forced to wear the niqab or the burqa "amounts to being cut off from society and rejecting the very spirit of the French republic that is founded on a desire to live together." "At a time where our societies are becoming more global and complex, the French people are pondering the future of their nation. Our responsibility is to show vigilance and reaffirm our commonly-shared values," she said. Critics say the law exploits a non-problem -- only about 1,900 women among France's five to six million Muslims wear a veil -- in a bid to pander to anti-immigration voters and to distract attention from France's economic woes. Most French Muslims come from France's former colonies in North and West Africa, where wearing the veil is rare, rather than from the Arabian peninsula or Pakistan where niqabs and burqas are a cultural tradition. Fines of 150 ($190) will be imposed on those caught wearing the veil, after a six-month grace period to allow time to educate Muslim women about the ban. Men who force their wives or daughters to cover themselves for religious reasons face stiffer penalties of up to 30,000 and a one-year jail term. Posted by: Fred 2010-07-14 |
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