France to vote on veil ban

[saima abdullah]

TUESDAY 13/07/2010

France's lower house of parliament is due to vote on whether to ban the public wearing of the face-covering veil worn by some Muslim women.

The controversial bill is likely to be passed by deputies on Tuesday and the Senate will probably follow suit in September.

Only three members of the Green party are expected to vote against the ban, while the opposition Socialists have decided to boycott the vote.

Polls show voters overwhelmingly support a ban, but France's highest administrative body warned in March that it could be found unconstitutional and therefore thrown out.

"The Council of the State warned the government that the French law and the EU law could find this bill unconstitutional, as it violates human rights and religious freedom," Al Jazeera's Estelle Youssouffa, reporting from the National Assembly in Paris, said.

The proposed law would make it illegal to cover the face anywhere in public and those caught wearing a full veil would face fines of $190 or be ordered to enrol in a "citizenship course".

Men who force their wives or daughters to wear the full veil face a fine of up to $37,754 and a one-year jail term, according to the draft legislation.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said earlier this year that the full veil, such as the niqab or the burqa, "hurts the dignity of women and is not acceptable in French society".



'A bare face'



In crafting the bill, officials have sought to avoid singling out Muslims.

While the proposed legislation is colloquially referred to as the "anti-burqa law," it is officially called "the bill to forbid concealing one's face in public".

The text refers neither to Islam nor to veils - leading to an often surreal disconnect between the text and discussion in parliament about it.

While officials insist the law against face-covering would apply to everyone, not just Muslims, they cite a host of exceptions, including masks for health reasons, for fencing, for carnivals and festivals.

Life in France is "carried out with a bare face", Michele Alliot-Marie, the justice minister, said last week as she opened the debate in the National Assembly.

As legal reasoning, she invoked the notion of public policy doctrine, the country's moral and social rules.

Face-covering veils "call into question the idea of integration, which is founded on the acceptance of the values of our society", Alliot-Marie said.



Muslim fears



The main body representing French Muslims says face-covering veils are not required by Islam and not suitable in France, but it worries that the law will stigmatise Muslims in general.

The veil is widely seen in France as a sign of extremism and an attack on women's rights and secularism, a central value of modern-day France. Critics say the ban is a ploy to attract far-right voters.

The French Muslims community is uncomfortable with the bill and feels it stigmatizing the whole community.


Jean Glavany, a socialist who is one of the few politicians to offer strong criticism of a ban, said dwelling on questions of French identity and whether burqas are welcome in France "is nothing more than the fear of those who are different, who come from abroad, who aren't like us, who don't share our values".

Failing to push through the ban would also be a humiliation for the conservative government of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, which has devoted much attention to a bill that would affect only an estimated 1,900 women.





Al-Jazeera
see how Allah is showing us real face of democratic system of kufer

 

[Aapa]

Assalaam walaikum,

All we have to do is one day...all the Muslim women in all of Europe walk out in the streets in hijab, niquab, burka, but sisters march by the dozens..and do not shop that day... oh yeah...

 

[BrotherInIslam7]

There is talk (heard it on BBC) that the law will be challenged in court. France is a member of the EU and if the case is argued successfully in court, they will have to rescind the law if they want to remain in the EU.

:salam2:

Yes, the muslims community in France needs to get organized and challenge this decision in the courts, as there are laws protecting such rights. We have to come out of our holes (we've hibernated long enough) and stand up for our rights, else no one will on our behalf.

 

[stiks]

The other thing I heard on BBC was that there is already a group of wealthy Muslims who promised to pay all fines against niqaabi women in France.

Not a good idea this, its about time french muslims fought for their rights.... or moved...

There's a hadith of the prophet salla llahu alayhi wassal (paraphrasing) that all the non muslims are on the same milla (culture i think) so now France, Next Italy and before we know the UK, so we muslims need to prepare for this but we should put our ultimate trust in Allah (they plan and Allah plans and Allah is the best of planners)

These kuffar have perfected the art of stealth, they will start off by banning it from banks and slowly take it all the way to our homes in months and years! Allah musta'an

 

[Kouyate42]

It is sad that this is happening in a country as enlightened as France. But I've lived in France (when I was a child) and visited it many times since, and there is a lot of racial prejudice in French culture.

Fact is that this new law is unconstitutional- freedom of religion, including religious dress, is a right in Europe.

that alone, I know niqaabi women and all of them wear it because of THEIR beliefs and their decision to do it. Genuine belief.

 

[kayleigh]

So, the French people will have to wear no face protection at winter time or in ski resorts? How silly can people get?

There is talk (heard it on BBC) that the law will be challenged in court. France is a member of the EU and if the case is argued successfully in court, they will have to rescind the law if they want to remain in the EU.

The other thing I heard on BBC was that there is already a group of wealthy Muslims who promised to pay all fines against niqaabi women in France. That's good in one way, easing the burden on niqaabi women, but it's also bad, because now France has a reliable revenue source that they can tap into and not have to raise taxes on the French!

Do you know if the other European laws, like in Belgium and Italy, will also be challenged?

 

[stiks]

(^ @ Sis Stiks)

True ..true, for every muslim hijrah is the best option. Still, I think the initiative those muslims have taken to support others on no other basis than the simple fact they also proclaim the Shahaadah and want to practise, is not something you see everyday in this age of greed and self interest.

French muslims can still fight for their rights, and certainly make plans for hijrah. The initiative of those partiuclar muslims is not a solution but should definitely be acknowledged and appreciated.

Wa-salaam

:salam2:

Sis though, much as a recognise this gesture and applaud them for it, i simply dont agree that we should have to folk over more of our cash to the kuffar, bad enough they take our taxes! its like we're being taxed for being muslim!

Its true that if we dont stand up for our rights no one will, so its time.

 

[BrotherInIslam7]

France Senate passes ban on Full Muslim Niqab

PARIS – The French Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill banning the burqa-style Islamic veil on public streets and other places, a measure that affects less than 2,000 women but that has been widely seen as a symbolic defense of French values.

The Senate voted 246 to 1 in favor of the bill in a final step toward making the ban a law — though it now must pass muster with France's constitutional watchdog. The bill was overwhelmingly passed in July in the lower house, the National Assembly.

Many Muslims believe the legislation is one more blow to France's No. 2 religion, and risks raising the level of Islamophobia in a country where mosques, like synagogues, are sporadic targets of hate. However, the law's many proponents say it will preserve the nation's values, including its secular foundations and a notion of fraternity that is contrary to those who hide their faces.

In an attempt to head off any legal challenges over arguments it tramples on religious and other freedoms, the leaders of both parliamentary houses said they had asked a special body to ensure it passes constitutional muster. The Constitutional Council has one month to rule.

The bill is worded to trip safely through legal minefields. For instance, the words "women," "Muslim" and "veil" are not even mentioned in any of its seven articles.

"This law was the object of long and complex debates," the Senate president, Gerard Larcher, and National Assembly head Bernard Accoyer said in a joint statement announcing their move. They said they want to be certain there is "no uncertainty" about its conforming to the constitution.

France would be the first European country to pass such a law, though others, notably neighboring Belgium, are considering laws against face-covering veils, seen as conflicting with the local culture.

"Our duty concerning such fundamental principles of our society is to speak with one voice," said Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, opening a less than 5-hour-long debate ahead of the vote.

The measure, carried by President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative party, was passed by the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, on July 13.

It would outlaw face-covering veils, including those worn by tourists from the Middle East, on public streets and elsewhere. The bill set fines of euro150 ($185) or citizenship classes for any woman caught covering her face, or both. It also carries stiff penalties for anyone, such as husbands or brothers, convicted of forcing the veil on a woman. The euro30,000 ($38,400) fine and year in prison are doubled if the victim is a minor.

The bill is aimed at ensuring gender equality, women's dignity and security, as well as upholding France's secular values — and its way of life.

Some women, like Kenza Drider, have vowed to wear a full-face veil despite a law. Drider says she prefers to flirt with arrest rather than bow to what she says is an injustice.

"It is a law that is unlawful," said Drider, a mother of four from Avignon, in southern France. "It is ... against individual liberty, freedom of religion, liberty of conscience," she said.

"I will continue to live my life as I always have with my full veil," she told Associated Press Television News.

Drider was the only woman who wears a full-faced veil to be interviewed by a parliamentary panel that spent six months deciding whether to move ahead with legislation.

Muslim leaders concur that Islam does not require a woman to hide her face. However, they have voiced concerns that a law forbidding them to do so would stigmatize the French Muslim population, which at an estimated 5 million is the largest in western Europe. Numerous Muslim women who wear the face-covering veil have said they are being increasingly harassed in the streets.

However, the bill has its Muslim defenders, like a women's rights group active in heavily immigrant neighborhoods.

"How can we allow the burqa here and at the same time fight the Taliban and all the fundamentalist groups across the world?" said the president of NPNS, Sihem Habchi. "I'm Muslim and I can't accept that because I'm a woman I have to disappear," she told APTN.

Raphael Liogier, a sociology professor who heads the Observatory of the Religious in Aix-en-Provence, says that Muslims in France are already targeted by hate-mongers and the ban on face-covering veils "will officialize Islamophobia."

"With the identity crisis that France has today, the scapegoat is the Muslim," he told The Associated Press.

Indeed, the justice minister said that the French "ask about the future of their society, of their nation" as they "see the internationalization of our society."

"The Senate must guarantee the permanence of our values ... which forge our identity," she said.

Ironically, instead of helping some women integrate, the measure may keep them cloistered in their homes to avoid exposing their faces in public.

"I won't go out. I'll send people to shop for me. I'll stay home, very simply," said Oum Al Khyr, who wears a "niqab" that hides all but the eyes.

"I'll spend my time praying," said the single woman "over age 45" who lives in Montreuil on Paris' eastern edge. "I'll exclude myself from society when I wanted to live in it."

The law banning the veil would take effect only after a six-month period designed to convince women to show their faces.

The Interior Ministry estimates the number of women who fully cover themselves at some 1,900, with a quarter of them converts to Islam and two-thirds with French nationality.

The French parliament wasted no time in working to get a ban in place, opening an inquiry shortly after the French president said in June 2009 that full veils that hide the face are "not welcome" in France.

It was unclear, however, how police would enforce the law, from handing out fines to hunting down any men who might force the veil on their wives and daughters.

"I will accept the fine with great pleasure," said Drider, vowing to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if she gets caught.

Link : http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100914/ap_on_re_eu/eu_france_forbidding_the_veil_10

 

[BrotherInIslam7]

:salam2:

I personally feel that this is going to comeback and haunt the French senate for passing such a law especially if the Niqabi sisters come out in protest on the main streets of Paris or any other major city.

I would hope that most of the people around the globe would be outraged at policemen actually detaining women for something they are wearing, that too out of modesty.

 

[Tabassum07]

This is outrageous. The bill was passed 246 to 1 - I wonder who that 1 brave soul was, as I also wonder out of those 246, how many were bribed or blackmailed to pass the bill.

I really wish the ummah would unite fast, because there is strength only in numbers. If the hijabi population of France decides to put on Niqab in support for all the Niqaabi sisters and go marching out in peaceful protest, not caring for how many fines they incur, isn't it bound to have some sort of effect on these hardheaded beaurocrats?

What can the solution be?

 

[BrotherInIslam7]

:salam2:

Perhaps we can start boycotting French products on a large scale (like we did with Danish products) which can make any government re-evaluate their laws in order to safeguard their economic interests.

 

[kayleigh]

Just heard on BBC that the European Union has reprimanded France with unusually harsh language for deporting thousands of Roma immigrants back to Romania on drummed up charges. The EU discovered an internal memo that suggests that such deportation was planned and regarded as a high priority of the government. The BBC says that the EU may sue France for breech of the EU constitution.

What goes around comes around.

People will hate me for saying this but I think the issue with them deporting Roma is even more offensive than banning the burka. I mean, both are gross violations of human rights, in my opinion, but just... ugh, I hate France.

 

[al-fajr]

They actually banned it ..

Inna lillaahi wa inna ilayhi raaji'un.

People will hate me for saying this but I think the issue with them deporting Roma is even more offensive than banning the burka.

You can subscirbe to any opinion you choose, but Islaamically speaking, no, its not as bad or worse than banning the burka. Its bad, but the fact muslim women are being prevented from living according to Allaah's commands is a whole lot worse.

Wa-salaam