Sarkozy makes surprise decision to seek full ban of Islamic veils

FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday ordered legislation that would ban women from wearing Islamic veils that hide the face in the street and other public places.

In seeking to forbid the garment from public view, Sarkozy defied the advice of experts sought by the government who warned that such a broad ban risked contravening France’s constitution.

Such a measure would put France on the same track as Belgium, which is also moving toward a complete ban in a similar reaction to the intrusion of Islamic culture on native European values. Sarkozy has said that such clothing oppresses women and is “not welcome” in France.

Government spokesman Luc Chatel said after yesterday’s weekly Cabinet meeting that the president decided the government should submit a bill to parliament in May on an overall ban on burqa-like veils “in all public places”.

The decision to seek a full ban, rather than a limited ban, came as a surprise. After a Cabinet meeting just a week ago, the government spokesman announced a decision for legislation that bans the veil but takes into account conclusions on the matter by the Council of State, France’s highest administrative office.

The government had sought the council’s opinion to ensure a law would pass constitutional muster. The Council of State advised that a full ban would be “legally very fragile”. A six-month parliamentary inquiry also concluded a full ban would raise constitutional issues, as well as enforcement problems.

“It’s a transgression, an aggression even, on the level of personal liberty,” said Abdellatif Lemsibak, a member of the National Federation of Muslims of France. “The Muslims have the right to an orthodox expression of their religion... it shocks me.”

France is a firmly secular country but has western Europe’s largest Muslim population, estimated at some five million.

In Belgium, an initiative for a ban on full veils in public places, including in the streets, is expected to become law in July.

Muslim leaders in France say that the face-covering veil is not a religious requirement of Islam but have cautioned against banning the garment.

The government spokesman said the French president considered that burqa-style veils that hide the face, such as niqabs, “do not pose a problem in a religious sense, but threaten the dignity of women”.

France outlawed Muslim headscarves and other “ostentatious” religious symbols from classrooms in 2004.

Numerous school girls wore headscarves in class, but only a tiny minority of women wear the all-covering veil. Nevertheless, debate on the question of whether a law is needed and how far it should reach has continued for nearly a year.

Muslim leaders say that the debate itself has stigmatised Muslims, as has a national debate on the French identity.

Even within Sarkozy’s own conservative UMP party, the question of forbidding face-covering veils in streets is divisive.

One of the party’s leading lawmakers, Jean-Francois Cope, had already filed his own preliminary bill for a global ban on the garments – which should be superseded by the government’s.

Sarkozy insisted that “everything should be done so that no one feels stigmatised”, Chatel said, without elaborating.

The French parliament is already slated to discuss a non-binding resolution on May 11 that sets out political principles, including the need for women to keep their faces uncovered.