French Women Become First to Stand Trial for Wearing Niqabs
THE GUARDIAN: State prosecutor requests €150 fines for pair charged with defying ban while protesting on streets of Meaux, near Paris

A court this week heard the first case against women for wearing the niqab – or Islamic face veil – since a ban came into force in April. One of the defendants was banned from entering the courthouse because she was still wearing the niqab.

The two women on trial were stopped in the street on 5 May near the town hall of Meaux, east of Paris. The mayor, Jean-François Copé, is an architect of the ban and head of Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling rightwing UMP party.

The women were wearing their niqabs during a demonstration against the law. They were supported by the Don't Touch My Constitution group, which has led protests against the ban. » | Angelique Chrisafis | Friday, June 17, 2011

British Muslim Radical Banned from France ahead of Burka Ban
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: A British Muslim radical has been banned permanently from France as the country steps up security before the introduction of a nationwide burka ban on Monday.

Anjem Choudary, head of the outlawed Islam4UK which advocates Sharia law, was turned back as he tried to join an illegal protest against the measure in Paris on Saturday.

He was served with a legal notice informing him that the French Interior Ministry was banning him permanently.

Abu Izzadeen and Omar Bakri, who are similarly controversial figures based in Britain, also tried to get to the event but were stopped by police.

France is on a high state of alert after al Qaeda issued warnings that it would attack the country following the introduction of the ban, which imposes fines of £130 to women caught wearing Islamic veils.

Men who force their wives or daughters to cover up illegally will face up to a year in prison, and fines of up to £25,000.

In October Jacques Myard, a senior member of President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP party who helped introduce the burka ban in France, said Britain was "losing the battle against Islamic extremism" and thus "opened the door to terrorism". » | Peter Allen in Paris | Sunday, April 10, 2011

Canada Veil Ban Controversy
A row is brewing in Canada, after a politician introduced proposals aimed at mandating the removal of veils in polling stations. The private member's bill was tabled by a politician from the ruling Conservative Party. He says the law would increase transparency during elections. But critics say it fuels Islamaphobia. Al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab reports

French Muslim Council Warns Government On Veil Ban
REUTERS: France's official Muslim council has warned the government not to expect it to impose a planned ban on full face veils for women that legal experts argue will be unconstitutional and police predict will be unenforceable.

Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), said his group opposed the full veil and would try to convince the tiny minority of veiled women that it was not a religious obligation and was out of place in France.

But Muslim leaders could not act as agents of the state during a six-month "mediation period" during which veiled women will be stopped and informed about the law but not fined.

The draft law, due to be passed this autumn, bans wearing full veils in public. After the mediation period, veiled women must pay a 150 euro ($182.8) fine or take "citizenship lessons" while anyone found forcing them to veil risks a 15,000 euro fine.

"It will be very hard to apply," Moussaoui told journalists Thursday. "The CFCM has said it's ready to work for this, but not as someone mandated by the state. It's the duty of society to shoulder its responsibility for the mediation."

Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has said she would depend on the police, the CFCM and local civic associations to convince covered women their veils violated French values.

Police unions have warned that stopping veiled women in the street could lead to chaotic scenes and protests.

"There will be lots of refusals, it will degenerate into insult and outrage, they'll be detained and families will gather outside the police station," Yannick Danio of the Unite SGP-Police union told the newspaper Le Monde. Other critics of the ban have said radical Muslims might provoke such confrontations to extend their influence. >>> Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor, Paris | Friday, June 04, 2010

Laïcité and the French Veil Debate
THE GUARDIAN: In France, unlike the UK, the debate over face-veils hinges on a much-cherished and uniquely French notion: laïcité

When the usually highly articulate Lord Pearson of Rannoch, the leader of the UK Independence Party (Ukip), raised the prospect of banning female face coverings early this year his choice of language summed up the poor level of debate on the subject. "We are not Muslim bashing", the peer said, "but this is incompatible with Britain's values of freedom and democracy." This mix of ugly vernacular and banal generalisation was far from impressive. Rather than convincing people that the burqa (the cloak that covers a woman from head to foot, most often seen in Afghanistan) and the niqab (the more genuinely Islamic veil that conceals a woman's face) were an affront to traditional British values, he merely played into the hands of racists who detest most manifestations of foreign cultures, and especially ones linked – however spuriously – with alien religions.

France, by contrast, is largely pursuing its own burqa and niqab debate within the context of the country's commitment to the secular society, or , as it is referred to on the other side of the Channel. When the country imposed a ban on religious symbols, including the Islamic headscarf, in state schools in 2004, it was not because they weren't French enough, but because they were not secular. A burqa and niqab ban can, according to this reasoning, be imposed outside any nationalistic debate.

That said, in June last year President Nicolas Sarkozy was widely criticised for targeting full-veil wearers as part of his Ukip-style national identity debate. He wanted to attract supporters of the increasingly discredited Front National party to his own cause, declaring both burqas and niqabs to be "an affront to Republican values". Like Ukip, Sarkozy argued that the garments had no basis in Islam, were a threat to gender equality, marginalised women, and endangered public safety because terrorists could use them to hide their identity, or every kind of criminal, from bank robbers to shop lifters, could use them to steal. As Sarkozy told a recent cabinet meeting: "Citizenship should be experienced with an uncovered face. There can be no other solution but a ban in all public places." >>> Nabila Ramdani | Sunday, May 23, 2010

Dissimulating Opinion: Why It’s Wrong to Ban the Veil
Watch video here: Why it’s wrong to ban the veil: Reza Aslan, a guest of the Sydney Writers' Festival, explains why it's wrong to ban the burqa and niqab.

Sarkozy Warns Against ‘Hurt’ Feelings As Cabinet Approves Veil Ban
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Bill foresees €150 fine for veiled women, men forcing women to veil face jail and €15,000 fine

President Nicolas Sarkozy urged French Muslims on Wednesday not to feel hurt or stigmatised by a planned ban on full face veils that will fine women who hide their faces and jail men if they force them to cover up.

Mr. Sarkozy told a cabinet meeting, which approved the bill that could become law this autumn, that France was an old nation that could not allow its vision of women’s dignity and public order to be violated by the veil.

Only a tiny minority of Muslim women in Europe wear full veils, called niqabs or burqas, but their numbers are growing. The Belgian parliament has already begun debating a ban there and could also impose it in the coming months.

France has reaped criticism from Muslim groups and rights advocates for the planned “burqa ban,” which Mr. Sarkozy called for last year to counter Islamist views among some Muslims.

“This is a decision one doesn’t take lightly,” he said. “Nobody should feel hurt or stigmatized. I’m thinking in particular of our Muslim compatriots, who have their place in the republic and should feel respected.” >>> Tom Heneghan, Paris, Reuters | Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Women Protest As French Cabinet Gets Veil Ban Bill
ASSOCIATED PRESS: PARIS — One runs her own company, another is a housewife and a third, a divorcee, raises her children by herself. Like nearly 2,000 other Muslim women who freely wear face-covering veils anywhere in France, their lives will soon change and they are worried.

On Wednesday, French Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie presented a draft law to the Cabinet banning Muslim veils that cover the face, the first formal step in a process to forbid such attire in all public places in France. It calls for euro150 ($185) fines and, in some cases, citizenship classes for women who run afoul of the law.

"Citizenship should be experienced with an uncovered face," President Nicolas Sarkozy told the Cabinet meeting, in remarks released by his office. "There can be no other solution but a ban in all public places."

Although the Interior Ministry estimates there are only 1,900 women who cover their faces with veils, the planned law would be another defining moment for Islam in France as the nation tries to bring its Muslim population — at least 5 million, the largest in western Europe — into the mainstream, even by force of law.

The bill is to go before parliament in July, and despite the acrimonious debate that is sure to come, there is little doubt the measure will become law. Sarkozy, who says such veils oppress women, wants a law banning them on the books as soon as possible.

Sarkozy welcomed the bill, saying the government is embarking on "a just path" and urging parliament to take its "moral responsibility" and approve it. >>> Elaine Ganley, AP | Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Denmark: Row over Court Veil Ban

BBC: Danish diplomats to Muslim countries are preparing themselves for another wave of anti-Danish protests after the government announced it would bar judges from wearing headscarves and similar religious or political symbols in courtrooms.

Although the ban will include crucifixes, Jewish skull caps and turbans as well as headscarves, the move is seen as being largely aimed at Muslim judges.

It comes after pressure from the Danish People's Party (DPP), known for its anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Earlier this month, the party produced a widely published poster showing a female judge wearing an all-encompassing burka.

The accompanying text argues that a Muslim headscarf is more than just a feather-light piece of clothing. Rather, it suggests, it is a symbol of submission and tyranny.

The final line of text reads: "Give us Denmark back."

Critics have argued that the burka imagery is misleading as the head covering is already banned from Danish courtrooms.

Cartoon crisis

But DPP leader, Pia Kjaersgaard, said: "Some might take offence because we are using a burka in our campaign. And so what?"

Mrs Kjaersgaard is a key ally of the Danish Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen - a potential candidate for the newly-created position of president of Europe.

She has said that in hospital she would request another doctor were she to be introduced to one wearing a Muslim headscarf. Denmark: Row over Court Veil Ban >>> By Thomas Buch-Andersen | May 19, 2008

ECONOMIST.COM:
The Islamic Headscarf in Denmark: Covering Up >>> | May 29, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Denmark)