French pol-ice will from Monday beco-me the first officers in Europe empowered to intercept Muslim women wearing full-face veils and to threaten them with fines if they refuse to expose their faces. While some other countries and territories have drawn up bans on the burqa and the niqab, France — home to Europe’s largest Muslim population — will be the first to risk stirring social tensions by putting one into practice.
The law comes into effect at an already fraught mom-ent in relations between the state and France’s Muslim minority, with President Nicolas Sarkozy accused of stigmatising Islam to win back votes from a resurgent far right. French officials estimate that only around 2,000 women, from a total Muslim population estimated at between four and six million, wear a niqab or a burqa, full-face veils that are traditional in parts of Arabia and South Asia.
But many Muslims and rights watchdogs accuse Sarkozy of targeting one of France’s most vulnerable and isolated groups to signal to anti-immigration voters that he shares their fear that Islam is a threat to French culture.
Other critics worry the law may be hard to enforce, since it had to be drawn up without reference to religion to ban any kind of face covering in public and since police officers will not be allowed to remove women’s head coverings.