France learns to live with the 'burqa bill'

Date
    September 3, 2012


PARIS: During a recent protest in Marseille, seven people were suddenly surrounded by the police, bundled into a van and brought in for questioning. Their offence was not the demonstration itself but the balaclavas they were wearing, a violation of the French law banning full-face veils in public places, passed in April 2011.   

The demonstration was against the conviction of the feminist Russian punk band Pussy Riot, hence the balaclavas, but the law was aimed at what Nicolas Sarkozy, then the president, considered a rise in Islamic extremism in France.

From the beginning, critics warned that the law, in addition to depriving Muslim women of their rights, would inflame tensions already raised to a high pitch by the economic crisis, riots and lingering fears of terrorism, on one side, and accusations of racism on the other. A little more than a year later, defenders and critics agree the actual impact of the law has been far less dramatic than the politicised prologue, largely because of tolerance from most Muslims and the police.

France's experience with the burqa bill is in many ways a proxy for the country's - and Europe's - ability to integrate its Muslim population, the largest on the continent. The Belgian government hopes to enact a similar ban on the niqab - which covers every part of the face except the eyes, and is popularly and mistakenly called a burqa - and the Dutch government has said it hopes to pass such a law next year.


Since the law went into effect, 425 women wearing full-face veils have been fined up to €150 ($188) each and 66 others have received warnings, said Pierre-Henry Brandet, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. But even the police concede they rarely enforce it, having no desire to increase tensions. In ''the great majority of cases'', Mr Brandet said, women lift their veils when the police ask in what he called ''a serene and respectful way on both sides''. Some women who wear the niqab say that for the most part the police know them and leave them alone.

But the issue does flare up. During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, on the evening of July 24, a young woman outside a store-front mosque in Marseille refused to lift her veil and resisted the police. The confrontation was joined by several dozen bystanders outside the mosque, known for its Salafist preachers.

Police reinforcements were called to the outburst, the most violent since the law was passed, and four people were arrested. The incident seemed to reflect pent-up anger about the treatment of Muslims among more militant and conservative branches of Islam.

It was to avoid accusations of discrimination that the Sarkozy government originally wrote the bill as a security measure, proscribing anyone from wearing clothing ''intended to hide the face''. But it also set prison terms for anyone forcing another to wear the full-face veil, a measure clearly aimed at Muslims.

Defenders of the law, which has been popular with the public, said France needed to protect its ''republican values'' of secularism in the public space; many also said France's Muslims, immigrants and French-born, must accept French norms. Some said the law protected Muslim women from religious extremism and gave them freedom of choice, rather than taking it away.

Kenza Drider, an outspoken critic of the law, continues to wear the niqab as part of what she considers her religious duty as a married Muslim woman. A convert, she is the mother of four children and considers the law discriminatory and ''completely ridiculous''. When asked by the police to remove the veil she does so, but then immediately replaces it.



Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/world/france-learns-to-live-with-the-burqa-bill-20120902-258i1.html#ixzz25MS9nWK0

Banning the veil is a security measure.

They are banned at every checkpoint i have manned - because we cannot confirm their identity to the card.

There are many signs in Arabic telling them veils are banned and if they do not comply to the soldier request they can be detained until they do confirm the identity.

Remember - security is most important than everything - keeping people safe.

Avram Horowitz wrote on Sep 3^rd, 2012 at 11:10am:

Destroying Israel is a security measure for the entire world.

Lifting for the appropriate people?

So what do you do when we have a checkpoint which can only be manned by male personnel because of security concerns?

Such as border near Sinai?

We can not let anyone through without a ID confirmation and that is the law.

Security is number 1 priority.

You know if you live in a country where people has disguised in a burqa and then blow up a schoolbus killing women and children as suicide - you would have a different opinion maybe.

adelcrow wrote on Sep 3^rd, 2012 at 11:30am:



Is a schoolbus of women and children in a Jerusalem market place a war zone?

Avram Horowitz wrote on Sep 3^rd, 2012 at 11:32am:


All of Palestine including the occupied zones are war zones.

Avram Horowitz wrote on Sep 3^rd, 2012 at 11:44am:


All of what you said is why its a war zone and why it always be one until the colonial settlers go back to Europe.

Avram Horowitz wrote on Sep 3^rd, 2012 at 11:44am:

Filthy terrorist, enjoy your holocaust.