Wearing a burka in public is set to become illegal across France after senators passed a nationwide ban.
The country’s upper house voted by 246 votes to one in favour of the measure, although there were a number of abstentions.
This means that a measure banning full face Islamic veils, also including the niqab, taken by the National Assembly, the lower house, in July was ratified.
f a man, like a husband or a brother, is convicted of forcing a woman to wear a veil he will be fined £24,000 or jailed for a year.
These sentences, which would be doubled if the ‘victim’ is a minor, are designed to avoid men subjugating women.The measure will be become effective in the spring of 2011, subject to a six-month period of mediation, and possible appeals.
Mr Sarkozy has argued that the law, which would apply to tourists arriving from countries such as Britain, is aimed at getting all Muslims to integrate fully into French society.
But many have argued that the ban will only apply to around 2000 Muslims living on out-of-town housing estates near major cities like Paris and Lyon.
They say Mr Sarkozy has only introduced it so as to stir up distrust of Islam, leaving members of France’s 5million-plus Muslim community feeling alienated and discriminated against.
Today some Muslim women were claiming they would stay at home to avoid exposing their faces.
‘There is no way I’m going out if I can’t cover my face,’ said Aicha, 38, from Juvisy, on the outskirts of Paris.
‘The ban is completely unfair and, indeed, illegal. It is designed to stigmatise Muslim women and to make us feel like criminals.’
Although the ban received cross-party support, some claim that it violates France’s civil liberties.
The Conseil d'Etat, France's highest administrative body, advised in May against the legislation because there is ‘no incontestable legal basis’ for a nationwide ban on veils.
The bill was carefully worded to try and avoid such legal problems. It is called ‘Forbidding the Dissimulation of the Face in the Public Space’, and makes no mention of the words ‘woman’or ‘veil’.
Because France is a secular society there are no mentions of the words ‘Muslim’ nor ‘Islam’ either.
Plans for a similar ban in Britain have been suggested by the UK Independence Party and at least one Tory backbencher.
