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2 Arrested Under France's Burka Ban

Meanwhile, some women stay home

By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff

Posted Apr 11, 2011 3:54 AM CDT | Updated Apr 11, 2011 8:35 AM CDT

(Newser) – Hours after France enacted its new burka ban today, two women wearing the full face veils were arrested. Several others who were protesting the new law in front of Paris's Notre Dame cathedral were also arrested after police attempted to break up the unauthorized protest, the Telegraph reports. Women face a $200 fine for "concealing the face in a public space," while men who force women to cover their faces are in for a $43,000 fine, reports ABC News.

Critics say the law is anti-Muslim. But French President Nicolas Sarkozy last year called the burka a "sign of enslavement." Some 61 protesters were arrested over the weekend at a Paris rally against the new law. Only 1,900 of the 2 million Muslim women in France are believed to wear the face-covering niqab, and very few wear the head-to-toe burka, even though the new law is generally known as the "burka ban." Some Muslim women told reporters they'll now be at stuck at home, while others vowed to defy the law, the first of its kind in Europe.

France's Kenza Drider wearing a niqab , leaves a shop  in Avignon, southern France, Monday, Sept. 13, 2010.
France's Kenza Drider wearing a niqab , leaves a shop in Avignon, southern France, Monday, Sept. 13, 2010.   (AP Photo / Claude Paris)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 85 comments
Spudsy
Apr 11, 2011 2:49 PM CDT
Bullshit law. Either you have freedom of religion or you don't. Members of the other two Abrahamic religions get a little nervous when they see islam actually making a physical representation of the way that the three religions see woman as inferior beings.
Sphinx
Apr 11, 2011 12:22 PM CDT
No state should have the right to institute a dress code for its people, whether it's countries like France or Saudi Arabia. Women are fulling capable of dressing themselves without their governments' help. I fully support the fines against men who force their wives to wear niqabs, the same way I would support fining men who force their wives to wear short skirts, because both infringe on personal choice. But this entire situation is infuriating; husbands can't tell women how to dress but the government can? ...All of this controversy just to make 1,000 women's lives harder.
hatchling1
Apr 11, 2011 9:36 AM CDT
Ignorant reporters can't seem to differentiate between covering the head and body and the face. It's facial coverings that are banned, not hijabs or even the long body covering gowns, which remain legal.

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