General

Paris woman fined for wearing Islamic niqab

Two others arrested after new law instated Monday

A 27-year-old woman in Paris has been fined 150 euros ($208CAD) for allegedly wearing an Islamic niqab veil in public. The veil, which covers the entire face except the eyes, is included in France’s new ban on the wearing of full-face coverings. On Monday, two women wearing face veils were arrested just hours after the ban came into effect. A spokesman for the police said the law will be enforced “whether you are a French citizen or a Saudi princess on the Champs-Elysées.” Questions have arisen over the enforcement of the ban, as police have no power to use force to remove head coverings. Says Emmanuel Roux of the police union SCPN, “The law will be infinitely difficult to apply, and it will be infinitely rarely applied, unfortunately.” But interior minister Claude Guéant insisted that the ban will be enforced, in the name of “secularism and equality between men and women… two principles upon which we cannot compromise.” The government has estimated that roughly 2,000 Muslim women in France wear the full-face veils.

The Telegraph

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