London: The controversial ban on the niqab, or a veil that covers a burqa-wearing woman’s face, came into effect in France on Monday, with Belgium and the Netherlands considering a similar step. In the United Kingdom, though, opinion appears to be more against the French government’s decision than in favour.
In defiance, Kenza Drider, a 32-year-old French mother of four, intends to leave her home in Avignon by wearing a niqab. She may not be arrested but could be fined. Under the new law, French citizens are forbidden to cover their faces in public places. While the wording of the legislation is unspecific, there's little doubt it targets Muslim women.
“I’ll be going about my business in my full veil as I have for the last 12 years and nothing and nobody is going to stop me,” said Drider, a French woman of Moroccan origin. But if she sets foot on Avignon’s railway station to take a train to Paris, she risks fine of 150 euros. A repeat offence would pack her off to a “citizenship course”. An estimated 350 to 2,000 women wear niqabs in France. The new rule will not impact on foreigners.
Drider’s defiance has made her a bit of a celebrity. “I never thought I’d see the day when France, my France, the country I was born in and I love, the country of liberte, egalite, fraternite, would do something that so obviously violates people’s freedom,” she said. “If women want to go around half-naked, I don’t object. But why should I not be allowed to cover up?”
Parliamentarians and feminists in France, though, have argued that the full veil is a symbol of male oppression and that niqab-wearing women are bullied into it by their husbands.
In the UK, the three main political parties, Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats, are opposed to the French order. But it's suspected that a section of Conservatives silently support Sarkozy on the ban.
“I’ll be going about my business in my full veil as I have for the last 12 years and nothing and nobody is going to stop me,” said Drider, a French woman of Moroccan origin. But if she sets foot on Avignon’s railway station to take a train to Paris, she risks fine of 150 euros. A repeat offence would pack her off to a “citizenship course”. An estimated 350 to 2,000 women wear niqabs in France. The new rule will not impact on foreigners.
Drider’s defiance has made her a bit of a celebrity. “I never thought I’d see the day when France, my France, the country I was born in and I love, the country of liberte, egalite, fraternite, would do something that so obviously violates people’s freedom,” she said. “If women want to go around half-naked, I don’t object. But why should I not be allowed to cover up?”
Parliamentarians and feminists in France, though, have argued that the full veil is a symbol of male oppression and that niqab-wearing women are bullied into it by their husbands.
In the UK, the three main political parties, Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats, are opposed to the French order. But it's suspected that a section of Conservatives silently support Sarkozy on the ban.
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