The French Government aims to outlaw the wearing of full veils on state premises and on public transport.
President Sarkozy laid down future action on the burqa, as it is popularly known, on Wednesday in an attempt to end a feud in his centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and calm passions in and outside France’s large Muslim population. Following the controversy, France is backing away from an outright ban on Muslim women covering their faces.
Mr Sarkozy, all main parties and most of the public are opposed to women wearing full veils but, after six months of parliamentary hearings, it has become apparent that a blanket ban would be unworkable and likely to backfire.
In Wednesday’s New Year speech to MPs, the President sought to quash an attempt by Jean-Francois Cope, his party’s Parliamentary leader, to rush through an “anti-burka law”. Mr Cope, who is in dispute with the UMP leadership, has tabled a Bill under which women who wear full veils anywhere in public would face a £670 fine. Their husbands or other accompanying men would also face fines.
Mr Sarkozy is eager to establish an all-party consensus on action to make clear that full veils are contrary to French principles while avoiding measures that would stigmatise Muslims and fall foul of constitutional guarantees in individual liberties.
“The full veil is not welcome in France because it is contrary to our values and contrary to the ideals we have of a woman’s dignity. No-one can doubt my firmness on this,” he told the MPs. “But it is vital to conduct ourselves in a way that no-one feels stigmatised. We must find a solution which enables us to win the widest support.”
The President warned Mr Cope and his hardline supporters of the danger that a full ban would play into the hands of Muslim radicals, especially if it was subsequently quashed by the courts. “Let us undertake not to give opponents of democracy, dignity and sexual equality the chance for a victory which would put our society in a very difficult situation,” he said. He proposed that Parliament vote a non-binding resolution later this year that would state that full face-covering by women breached the Republic’s fundamental principles of sexual equality and secularism. This could be followed up if necessary with specific measures, he added. Aides said that this could include regultions under public safety and secularism laws to ensure that women did not wear full-cover religious dress on state premises. These will include schools, universities and public transport. Legal doubts remain over enforcement in hospitals and other state public buildings.
This approach has already been adopted by the UMP leadership and the opposition Socialist party and it is backed by leaders of mainstream Muslim organisations.
Mr Sarkozy has been trying to calm emotions over the burka, or the niqab as it is more correctly termed, after a government-inspired “national debate” on French identity veered in recent months into an argument about Muslim immigrants.
No more than about 2,000 women are said to wear full face-covering, nearly all of them young women from the immigrant housing estates who have embraced strict Islamic codes as an act of defiance.
Legal experts have been telling Parliament and the Government that an outright ban in any public place, as desired by Mr Cope and a minority of politicians of right and left, would be unenforceable.
Marc Trevidic, the judge who heads France’s anti-terrorism investigations, said on Sunday that a complete ban would make France an easy target for extremist propaganda. He said: “Are police officers going to fine the emirs visiting with their veiled wives in a five-star hotel?”
The parliamentary panel is to make recommendations by the end of January. Mr Sarkozy said that no action should be taken until national regional elections in March.