2010-01-26 06:10:13
France was set to move one step closer to barring Muslim women from wearing the full Islamic veil with the release Tuesday of a report calling for a ban on the burqa in public institutions.
It is expected to call the burqa an affront to French values and make 18 recommendations, including adopting a ban on wearing the full veil in "public services" including hospitals, schools and transport.
President Nicolas Sarkozy set the tone for the debate when he declared the burqa "not welcome" in France and described it as a symbol of women's "subservience" which cannot be tolerated in a country that considers itself a human rights leader.
Hopes for reaching any sort of political consensus have evaporated, with the opposition Socialists, divided by those calling for a total prohibition and those opposed to stigmatising wearers of the full veil, planning to abstain from the vote on the report.
The leader of Sarkozy's right-wing party in parliament, Jean-Francois Cope, has already presented draft legislation that would make it illegal for anyone to cover their faces in public for reasons of security.
Home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority, estimated at about six million, France is heading into unchartered territory. No European country has adopted sweeping national legislation on restricting the full veil.
French support for a law banning the full veil is strong: a poll last week showed that 57 percent are in favour.
While lawmakers are divided on the scope of the restrictions, with many fearing that a draconian law would stigmatise Muslims who are already bristling at the anti-Islam rants heard during the government's national identity debate, they agree that some time will be needed to craft a solid text that would stand up to a court challenge.
Nicolas Sarkozy backs a ban on the full Muslim veil
by Charles Bremner in Paris
From The Times January 26, 2010
Curbs on wearing the full Muslim veil come a step closer in France today with a report that will call for a ban on the dress in post offices, universities, hospitals and state-owned premises, as well as public transport.
Last night President Sarkozy was due to endorse the proposals, to be made by an all-party commission. Last week he called the niqab, the form of veil worn in France, “contrary to our values and to the ideals we have of women’s dignity”. Parliament is expected to act on the proposals in the spring.
If they become law women with covered faces would be refused public services such as transport, university classes and benefits.
The popular campaign for an “anti-burka law”, as it is known, is helping Mr Sarkozy after a series of political blunders in recent months that have robbed him of his aura of invincibility. In his appearance last night he sought to restore confidence in his administration. His format — questions from 11 hand-picked members of the public — was attacked by the opposition as “Berlusconi-style” propaganda.
Two out of three people want the veil, worn by a small but growing number of young fundamentalists, to be outlawed anywhere in public, according to opinion polls. Mr Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and a section of the left-wing opposition want that, too, but the President called for narrower measures and more thought. France should not stigmatise Muslims, he said.
After five months of testimony from religious leaders, human rights activists and others, the parliamentary commission closed its work in disarray. A limited legal ban and a parliamentary resolution condemning the niqab was the maximum consensus that could be reached. Even that is likely to draw criticism from outside France.
The Socialist opposition, divided among themselves over the veil, are to abstain from a vote on the report. They say that it has been polluted by a “great national debate” on French identity that Mr Sarkozy has staged over the past three months.
Some figures in Mr Sarkozy’s party are also uneasy over the way that the veil question has been blended with the national debate, which has focused on the integration of the country’s five million Muslims. Mr Sarkozy has contributed to the distaste, calling on French Muslims to be discreet about practising their religion. The critics see this as a crude play for votes before the regional council elections in March.
Muslim leaders told the commission that the full veil was not supported by most Muslims but that a law would add to the feeling of rejection.
Views on the veil
The Netherlands A proposal to ban veils failed in 2006 after lawyers said that it would be unconstitutional. The Government has since said that it will try to ban face-covering veils in schools and for government employees
Italy A law passed in 1975 required people to keep their faces visible in public but it is not usually applied to Muslim women. Silvio Berlusconi’s government said in October 2009 that it would try to add a specific ban on religious garments that cover the face
Belgium Full veils were banned in the town of Maaseik in 2004 but there is no countrywide ban
Germany Some states have banned teachers from wearing headscarves in public schools
Switzerland The Justice Ministry said that it would consider a ban after November’s referendum halting the building of new minarets
Turkey Islamic-style headscarves in schools, universities and government offices are banned
Sources: Associated Press; Reuters
Burka, niqab have no place in Denmark, PM says
Agence France-Presse
January 19, 2010
COPENHAGEN - The face-covering burka and niqab veils worn by some Muslim women have no place in Denmark, Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said Tuesday, adding his government was considering restricting them.
Rasmussen stopped short, however, of calling for a ban on the veils, noting "legal and other limits".
"The government's position is clear: the burka and the niqab have no place in Danish society. They symbolise a view of women and humanity that we totally oppose and that we want to combat in Danish society," Rasmussen told reporters.
Denmark is "an open, democratic society where we look at the person to whom we are talking, whether it's in a classroom or on the job," he said.
"That is why we don't want to see this garment in Danish society," he added.
He said his centre-right government was "discussing ways of limiting the wearing" of the veils without violating the Scandinavian country's constitution.
The prime minister's comments came a day after the publication of a report which showed that use of the burka was "extremely rare" in Denmark, though no figures were given, and that the niqab was worn by "between 100 and 200" women.
The report was commissioned by the social affairs ministry and written by researchers at the University of Copenhagen.
It follows a heated debate on the burka that has divided the two-party coalition government since the summer amid pressure from its key parliamentary ally the far-right Danish People's Party.
Some 100,000 Muslim women live in Denmark, representing about 1.9 per cent of Denmark's total population of 5.5 million. Some 0.15 per cent of the Muslim women wear the niqab, according to the report.
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