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France Implements Ban on Islamic Face Veils

4/12/11

Two women in France were arrested Sunday for wearing the traditional Islamic face veil in public just hours after a new law went into effect banning it.  MSNBC explained that the law was passed last year and, despite its public support in France, it has overseas allies of the French dealing with protests. Islam is France’s second largest religion, but only a very small minority of French Muslims wear the veil. Officially, the ban reads that it is illegal to “hide the face in public” and doesn’t mention the Muslim burqa or niqab, the traditional Islamic coverings. Still, Muslims in and outside France see the ban as creating a stigma against Islam as a whole; according to the MSNBC story, the ban has even prompted official protests from Pakistan and warnings from al-Qaida. Amnesty International has officially condemned the detainment of these two women, who were participating in a protest rally against the ban in front of Notre Dame Cathedral. Government officials have defended the new ban as based on “two fundamental principles: the principle of secularism and the principle of equality between man and woman.”  French police have admitted that the ban will be difficult to enforce.