France starts ban on full-face veil

[SpArK]

France starts ban on full-face veil
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PARIS | Mon Apr 11, 2011
(Reuters) - France's ban on full face veils, a first in Europe, went into force on Monday, and anyone wearing the Muslim niqab or burqa in public could now face a fine of 150 euros ($216), or lessons in French citizenship.

The center-right government, which passed the law in October, has rolled out a public relations campaign to explain the ban and the rules of its application that includes posters, pamphlets and a government-hosted web site.

Guidelines spelled out in the pamphlet forbid police from asking women to remove their burqa or full-face veil in the street. They will instead be escorted to a police station and asked to remove the veil there for identification.

Widely criticized by Muslims abroad as impinging on their religious freedom, the law has provoked a limited backlash in France where a strict separation of church and state is seen as central to maintaining a peaceful civil society.

A Muslim property dealer is urging women to engage in "civil disobedience" by continuing to wear the veil if they so desire and has called on supporters to hold a silent prayer in protest of the ban in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Rachid Nekkaz, the property dealer, said in a webcast he would help pay fines and was putting a property worth around two million euros up for sale to fund his campaign.

"The street is the universal home of freedom and nobody should challenge that so long as these woman are not impinging on anyone else's freedom," he said. "I am calling on all free women who so wish to wear the veil in the street and engage in civil disobedience," he said.

In the southern city of Avignon, Reuters TV filmed a woman boarding a train wearing a burqa, unchallenged by police.

"It's not an act of provocation," said Kenza Drider, wearing a full-face veil on the train. "I'm only carrying out my citizens' rights, I'm not committing a crime ... If they (police) ask me for identity papers I'll show them, no problem."

France's five-million-strong Muslim minority is Western Europe's largest, but fewer than 2,000 women are believed actually to wear a full face veil.

Many Muslim leaders have said they support neither the veil nor the law banning it.

On Saturday, French police arrested around 60 people who turned up for a banned protest over the veil ban which had been called by a Muslim group in Britain. One of the protestors was arrested on his arrival from Britain, a police spokesman said.

The timing is all the more sensitive after France's ruling UMP party called a debate on the role of Islam in French society, a forum that some criticized as unfairly singling out a portion of the population as problematic.

The guide sent out last week to police notes that the burqa ban does not apply inside private cars, but it reminds officers that such cases can be dealt with under road safety rules.

(Writing by Brian Love and Nick Vinocur; Editing by Jon Hemming)

France starts ban on full-face veil | Reuters

 

[Bhairava]

Good move

 

[tallboy123]

freedom to muslim women..thumbs up france

 

[khurasaan1]

They will get twoooo. thumbs down....Insha-Allah...

 

[iPakMan]

Why does everything bad have to end with "Inshallah"? And what if Allah doesn`t will it, then what?
Good for the french.

 

[Nair saab]

Two women wearing Islamic face veils or niqabs were detained by police in Paris on Monday on the first day of a ban on Muslim garments that cover the face.

The two women were part of a group of a dozen people protesting the ban — the first of its kind in a Western country — in front of NotreDame cathedral.

A police spokesman told DPA that three people had been detained over the protest “because they were taking part in an undeclared demonstration” and not because two of the women were wearing the niqab.

They had been brought to a police station for an identity check, the spokesman said. He could not confirm whether they had been fined.

The demonstration was organized by an organization called Don’t Touch My Constitution, which has led opposition to the law that was passed last October but only came into effect on Monday.

Under the law a woman wearing a burqa (a garment that covers the body from head to toe) or a niqab (a veil that covers the face with just a slit for the eyes) can be fined 150 euros or forced to take classes on citizenship.

Around 2,000 women are estimated to be affected by the ban, which includes public parks, restaurants, cinemas and beaches but does not include private homes, places of worship or cars.

Within hours of the ban a woman wearing a niqab boarded a train to Paris from the southern city of Avignon.

Kenza Drider, 32, told reporters she considered the law a violation of her rights as a citizen of France and a European but that if she was cited by police.

“I am committing no crime,” said Ms. Drider, who was on her way to Paris for a television interview. There were no reports of her being stopped by police.

Proponents of the ban say it aims to protect women from Islamic fundamentalism and improve public security.

The law’s detractors argue it will make imprison burqa or niqab wearers in their homes.

Police have been ordered to apply the law with as much tact as possible, and to try to persuade rather than coerce women to show their face for identity checks.

The Hindu : News / International : Two women detained on first day of French burqa ban

 

[Burnz]

France became richer by €300.

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

I heard the French MP on TV.

They are insisting on full face being open if the person is in public service.

Veils are not banned.

 

[desioptimist]

I heard the French MP on TV.

They are insisting on full face being open if the person is in public service.

Veils are not banned.

Yes, it has been discussed many times, ban is on niqab, not hijab.

 

[Burnz]

I hope India and Pakistan apply this law. Few days back we had a robbery case where women in Burkha stole some precious jewelery and the CCTV only showed burkhas.

 

[tallboy123]

Whole Europe should follow France's path...

 

[Thorough Pro]

France became richer by €300.

Sick. so much for their human rights, liberty and freedom. they are happy with their sisters and daughters going around naked. Proof enough that they not only have no moral values, they don't even have any respect for personal freedom. This is the outcome when the whole society is born out of wedlock. Bastards have no respect for anyone.

 

[Burnz]

Whole Europe should follow France's path...

Even India should.

 

[Burnz]

Sick. so much for their human rights, liberty and freedom. they are happy with their sisters and daughters going around naked. Proof enough that they not only have no moral values, they don't even have any respect for personal freedom. This is the outcome when the whole society is born out of wedlock. Bastards have no respect for anyone.

Are Saudis also bastards?
Women are not allowed to drive.
Non-Muslims cannot even practice their religion.

 

[Thorough Pro]

Are Saudis also bastards?
Women are not allowed to drive.
Non-Muslims cannot even practice their religion.

but they don't force you to uncover yourself. Driving is a different issue altogether. btw before talking about Saudis take a look inside your own country and culture, where widows are forced against their will to wear only specific dress for the rest of their lives and forced not to wear jewlery, etc. and I am talking about real life not bollywood movies.