'Burqa ban' in Europe
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France’s Burqa Ban: Two Women Fined for Covering Faces – ABC News
“The problem is not the fine,” their lawyer told the German news agency DPA on Thursday. “The problem is that these women are effectively under house arrest. That’s the real punishment.”
The French proceedings were closely followed by governments around Europe. Italy and Belgium have passed similar legislation, while Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany have debated them. A number of nations already forbid face-covering garments for state employees while they’re on the job — including teachers — but a full ban has never been tested by modern European democracies.
“(The ban) simply violates my individual freedom, my freedom of thought, of religious expression and practice,” Ahmas told the Daily Telegraph, “and I have absolutely no intention of applying it.”
The French law has popular support, and some politicians claim they want to save Muslim women from the backward influence of religiously conservative men.
“There are extremist gurus out there and we must stop their influence and barbaric ideologies,” a Communist Party lawmaker named André Gerin told reporters last year, according to USA Today. “Covering one’s face undermines one’s identity, a woman’s femininity and gender equality.”
But the French law makes no reference to religion or gender. It forbids face coverings but makes a number of exceptions — for motorcycle helmets, for example, or fencing and ski masks.