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France debates a ban on burqa

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John Laurenson reports that a parliamentary committee in France is considering a national ban on the burqa, the full-body covering worn by some Muslim women.

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MARCO WERMAN: Six years ago, France banned the wearing of Muslim head scarves in schools and other public buildings. Now the country is considering going further, banning women from wearing a full cover, the burqa, in public.  President Sarkozy appointed a parliamentary commission to study the wisdom of such a ban.  The commission is due to report back next week but whatever the findings, saw lawmakers are vowing to press ahead on a burqa ban.  John Laurensen reports from Paris.

JOHN LAURENSON:  An episode in what the French government is calling the great debate about French national identity.  It was the immigration minister’s idea and for the last couple of months in local halls and television studios up and down the country, people have been engaged in that very French activity of arguing about what it means to be French and more specifically over whether Muslim women in France can wear the burqa.  This was President’s Sarkozy’s contribution to the debate.  France is a country where women are free, he said, where church and state are separated, where the beliefs of each person are respected and where there is no room for the burqa.  Sarkozy is though, undecided about a ban.  He’s told Parliament it could pass a symbolic resolution rather than a law which would impose legal sanctions on women like this one I met in a mainly Muslim neighborhood of Paris.  Her veil didn’t even have a slit for the eyes.

FEMALE SPEAKER:  I’m very happy to wear it and it’s my decision.  Sometimes people bother me about it.  They say look at her and make comments but it’s my right.  If there’s a ban, they can put in prison, they can fine me but I won’t change.  I won’t take off my veil.

LAURENSON:  The intelligence services were asked to count how many women there are like this in France.  The answer, 2,000.  About a quarter of them converts, apparently keen to show their break from their old religion and culture.  It is in any case, a tiny proportion of Muslims and a far lower number than in the UK, which is why those who believe the burqa oppresses women, say it’s important to act now. Sihem Habchi is president of ‘Ni Putes, Ni Soumises’ ‘Neither Whores, Nor Doormats’, a feminist movement created by women from France’s poor city suburbs.  She is herself a Muslim.

SIHEM HABCHI:  If you don’t react now, it will be too late.  If you look at what’s happening in England, right now it’s very difficult to even have a debate because say really deeply are in the society and this kind of groups have support inside human rights organizations, you know.  How we can fight in Afghanistan, against the Taliban and support these kind of groups in Europe?

LAURENSON:  The presidents of the French Muslim Council, Mohammad Moussaoui, refuses to be drawn on what he thinks of the burqa.  What he does say is that Muslim scholars do not, on the whole, believe that women must wear full cover and that in Europe; the burqa is a barrier to integration and harmonious relations with non-Muslims.  He says rules barring it in places where it’s important to identify people such as town halls, banks and shops with video surveillance equipment would be understandable.  But a ban on full cover in the street would be asking for trouble.

SPEAKER:  When the police are forced to make the law respected in the street, it’ll create scenes which, in all probability, will be phoned on mobile phones and go around the world on video share sites.  Polarizing debate around the burqa also gives platform to people with confrontational points of view, which can only be bad for France.

LAURENSON:  Pro-ban MP’s like Jacques Myard, a member of President Sarkozy’s party, do not agree.

JACQUES MYARD:  It’s very simple.  Someone who’ll be, who wears a complete veil on her face, will be taken home and she won’t be able to go on the street in this way.  Of course, if people violate it permanently, then there should be a sanction and I think a fine of 750 Euros is something which would prevent people try to play with the law.

LAURENSON:  Other countries, notably the Netherlands, have decided against forbidding women to wear the burqa in the street.  Many in France on the left and also in Sarkozy’s own party, hope France too, will step back from the ban.  But this country have already proved, when it banned Muslim head scarves in school, that it’s ready to go further than any other to defends its feud of secularism.  And outlawing the burqa would be popular.  The latest opinion poll shows 74% of French people are in favor of a ban.  For The World, I’m John Laurensen, Paris.

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