March 30 (Bloomberg) -- A full ban of head-to-toe veils worn by some Muslim women might contravene France’s constitution, the top administrative court said.
In an advisory letter to Prime Minister Francois Fillon, France’s State Council said a ban on facial veils in all public places “would raise serious judicial risks in regard to rights that are guaranteed both by the constitution and by convention.” The court made the letter public today.
The State Council said veils can constitutionally be banned in state offices and in any place requiring the identification of a person for security reasons, such as airports.
President Nicolas Sarkozy says he favors a law banning the burqa, which is how the French describe any Islamic-inspired garment covering a woman’s face.
Jean-Francois Cope, head of the parliamentary group of Sarkozy’s party, said he’d go ahead and propose a law banning head-to-toe veils everywhere in the name of defending female dignity and France’s traditions of secularism.
“The solution is a law to ban it in all public places,” Cope said today on France 2 television. “It creates security problems if you ban it in hospitals but not at the bakery. You are asking the baker to interpret the law.” Fillon asked the State Council for an opinion before any law was drawn up.
About 1,900 Muslim women in France cover their faces, according to figures in a report presented last year by Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux. Most of the garments worn in France are technically called “niqabs.”
No Official Statistics
France doesn’t allow official statistics based on ethnicity or religion. Various studies and polls estimate France’s Muslim population at between 3 and 10 percent of its 64 million inhabitants.
Most Muslim leaders auditioned by a parliamentary commission last year said they opposed the wearing of veils covering the face, though they said a law could stigmatize Muslims.
The commission said in January that it favored measures to limit veils. It didn’t reach a consensus on whether there should be a full or a partial ban.
France passed a law in 2004 forbidding headscarves in schools and for government workers in state offices.
--With assistance by Tara Patel in Paris. Editors: Julian Nundy, Eddie Buckle
To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at [email protected].
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at [email protected].
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