France Bans Burqas: A Look At Islamic Veil Laws In Europe

In a move that has already been met with a burst of civil defiance, France became the first country to ban Islamic face veils anywhere in public.

Those caught violating the ban are liable to a fine of 150 euros ($216) or lessons in French citizenship. However, as the Associated Press is reporting, several women appeared in burqas in front of Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral and two were detained for taking part in an unauthorized protest.

Such laws have been stirring controversy across Europe for the past year, ever since Belgium's lower house voted a year ago in favor of banning the full veil. (The Belgian ban has not been enacted and is on hold owing to long-term political deadlock.)

View a summary of European policies on wearing the Muslim veil, courtesy of Reuters, below:

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France

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France is the first country in Europe to ban full-face veils. Under the new law, police are not allowed to ask women to remove their full-face veil in the street. They will instead be escorted to a police station and asked to remove the veil there for identification. The law has attracted criticism from religious leaders and opposition politicians who accuse President Nicolas Sarkozy of pandering to far-right voters ahead of an election in 2012.

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France is the first country in Europe to ban full-face veils. Under the new law, police are not allowed to ask women to remove their full-face veil in the street. They will instead be escorted to a police station and asked to remove the veil there for identification. The law has attracted criticism from religious leaders and opposition politicians who accuse President Nicolas Sarkozy of pandering to far-right voters ahead of an election in 2012.

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Comments

[Ami Toben]

02:44 PM on 05/27/2011

What if it were men with veiled faces? Would anyone make such a big stink about banning those? Now ask yourself what, in a gender equal state, is the difference?

[bkerensa]

01:23 AM on 05/11/2011

If the GOP retakes the White House in 2012 or future elections then we will see some bans on any religion that is not christian. The conservative Christians have been ramping up for a fight to take over the government for years (Jesus Camp)

[Fetus]

06:23 PM on 05/09/2011

I would say based on culture, Brazil will be the next country to ban burqas.

[horseguards]

02:58 PM on 04/29/2011

Belgium appears to be the next:

www.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/world/europe/29briefs-Belgium.html?ref=europe

[Jake Thomas]

02:06 AM on 04/27/2011

Wearing the burka is a culturally mandated practice, not religious. If wearing a burka is oppressive within the context of our culture then it should be banned. The fact of the matter is that we live in a society that values freedom of expression and we have to decide if burka bans achieve that goal.

[doodie pants]

03:40 AM on 04/26/2011

You guys know that this is a huge breach on the freedoms and rights of Ninja clans everywhere? Absolutely ridiculous! I won't stand for this breach of personal liberties.

http://doodiepants.com/2011/04/12/ninja-clans-in-france-protest-burqa-ban/

[ms.understood]

12:39 AM on 04/23/2011

hopefully, america will ban it next. this is the most oppressive expression of being in modern day times...completely unnecessary.

[Puncastle]

06:20 AM on 04/26/2011

Please explain how Niqab is oppressive when these women *choose* to wear it. Isn't it more oppressive to force a woman to not wear an article of clothing that they feel more comfortable wearing?

[bokhattak]

02:07 PM on 04/26/2011

What exactly is oppressive about someone choosing to wear a piece of clothing? I find it oppressive that French Muslim women are now forbidden from wearing a specific article of clothing.

France and the United States are nations with civil liberties and freedoms that allow a Muslim woman to make her own choices. If she chooses to be a hijabi, her rights should be protected.

[ms.understood]

04:56 PM on 04/26/2011

the thing that makes wearing these forms of clothing is the reasoning behind wearing them. women are covering themselves in the event that a man who isn't their husband may be attracted to them, resulting in either a sexual advance or rape. wearing the niqab is about like faulting the victim of rape for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, when it's actually the fault of the guy who couldn't control his impulses like a civilized human being. and these are the same women who are not allowed to work or even go out in public without the permission or accompaniment of men, so please spare me on the "it's their choice" bit.

[moroccantreasures]

10:59 PM on 04/22/2011

The French Muslim women just need to reinvent the Burqa, try a hijab in a solid color, long length and get clear sunglasses with an attached long scarf that will covered the front part of the face all around to the ears but not a part of the hijab. I mean are they going to ban sunglasses next? Surely some Cancer survivors in France wear head covering scarfs? Surely some elder women do to protect their weekly hair do? What about nuns? Are they going to arrest nuns in headcovers that wear sun glasses? I could go on and on.

Also there are important and smart times for non Muslim women to wear a headcover, like the journalists reporting in Muslim countries that stick out like hey look at me I am a hot blonde American reporter! I dont blend in with the crowd because my handlers are stupid so likely I will be assulted or kidnapped, oh duh maybe I should have blended in a bit!

[bokhattak]

12:25 PM on 04/22/2011

Argument after argument for this law can be dissected as so much garbage. Some (not all) Muslim women choose to wear burqa, hijab, etc. Some are oppressed into this decision, others are not. For those who are actually oppressed, France already has protection in the form of civil liberties that these women can take advantage of at any moment they so choose.

What this ban does is to oppress Muslims from actively practicing some of our religious traditions. Is there a beard ban next? Are Muslim men now going to be forced to wear gold rings? This is not done to preserve liberties but to chip away at Islamic culture.

[Alex Gartzia]

02:58 AM on 04/21/2011

France, Lax Nudity and Ban Burqas. It must be said that there are factors to take into consideration:

1. How can you tell which of two people committed a crime when the two are wearing a Burqa?
2. How can you identify a terrorist, criminal or felon if they are under one of these garments? Being that you know who you are looking for but you can't. They do not necessarily have to be Muslim. It's abuse can be a factor and tool for dangerous people.

[RJ Russell]

04:43 PM on 04/20/2011

The very of idea of tolerance only extending to the tolerant is ridiculous, IMO. That makes tolerance a dogma.
Here's an example. I played a game one time as a kid. Everyone had two balloons tied one on each foot. We were supposed to run around and try to pop the other people's balloons. When both your balloons are popped, you're out.
So, we had hundreds of kids playing this. To make matters worse it was my first trip to Europe, and the others were all Polish kids. I couldn't understand most of them, and most of them couldn't understand me.
Pretty soon, a girl came over and popped my balloons. The problem was, she didn't have any balloons left. She should have been out. What did I do? I continued playing. Of course, anyone I popped probably continued playing because I had no balloons anymore. They didn't know that I *should* still be in.
What that quickly devolves into is everyone running around with no balloons and trying to play the game.
Maybe the girl that popped my balloons also *should* have been in... meaning I should be out.
"Tolerance only extends to the tolerant" is the same as "Popping only counts if the person has balloons."
Maybe you are justified in being intolerant to the intolerant. But maybe they were justified in their intolerance. Will you decide?

If so, then you are using your own viewpoint as the standard and comparing everything else to it ->Intolerance.

[RJ Russell]

04:26 PM on 04/20/2011

I'm not responding to anyone in particular, just the general vibe of this thread.
Burqas are not a sign of oppression.
In Egypt there are big pushes from women because they don't want to wear the burqas.
Travel to Iran? The women there wear them by choice.
(Of course this is a generalization, there are people in both places on both sides).
Surely, some women are forced to wear burqas, but not all. It's the same as saying all religions are oppression, because some people don't have a choice. Surely you cannot say that all people are forced to have a certain religion and decide to ban them all. Maybe the people in the religion are brainwashed? Maybe the women in burqas are brainwashed?

If you agree with either those two statements then there's no way for you to have a rational discussion with anyone that has a religion or anyone that wears a burqa. Any argument can be defeated by claiming that that person is brainwashed. But how can your arguments be trusted? Perhaps you're brainwashed. A rational discussion cannot have ad hominem attacks like that; your upbringing has no weight on the validity of your argument.

It is oppression by a government to take away freedom to practice religion. The ban on caps and large crosses is ridiculous in schools.

[Harris Zafar]

05:33 PM on 04/18/2011

This is a lose-lose situation to impose such a law in France. I just published a piece about this very topic in my column: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harris-zafar/burqa-france-_b_849473.html

[cornel]

05:14 PM on 04/15/2011

I hope all countries will ban the veil. We men deserve to see those pretty faces !

[ResistImperialism]

08:12 PM on 04/14/2011

No man has a right to force women to wear veils, and no man has the right to force women to remove their veils. If there are security issues, that can be worked out. France just has a long standing hatred of Islam as they were kicked out of Algeria after a brutal anti-colonial war in which more than a million Algerians were killed. No one owns a woman's body.

[thereisonlyoneparty]

01:43 AM on 04/17/2011

Sort of right.

While it should be a matter of choice, the problem is that it is not.  There is no informed consent.  The "protection of modesty" is forced upon them.

This is really worse than force.  Force and coercion result in people changing after that force is removed.  But this lasts.

[TeeSC]

04:45 PM on 04/18/2011

I agree resistimperialism... forcing a woman to remove hejab is just as oppressive as forcing her to wear one. 

[Susan Shaffer]

11:34 PM on 04/22/2011

i think this thought is behind a lot of islamaphobia. being forced to wear the burqa.
moslems are reproducing at higher rates than non moslems. it is conceivable that at some time in the future that there maybe more moslems in france and other european countries than there are non moslems. at which point they can have a referendum and force all women to wear burqas.