French Ban Muslim Women From Wearing Veils
3 hours 25 mins ago
(c) Sky News 2011
A ban on full face veils has come into force in France, exposing Muslim women who wear the niqab or burka in public to fines of £132 (150 euros). Skip related content
The country's five-million-strong Muslim minority is western Europe's largest, but fewer than 2,000 women are believed to wear a full face veil.
Many Muslim leaders have said they support neither the veil nor the law banning it.
French police arrested 59 people on Saturday who turned up for a banned protest over the veil ban, one of them on arrival in France from Britain, according to a police spokesman.
The timing of the onset of the ban is all the more sensitive after France's ruling political party, President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP, called a debate on the place of Islam in France.
That is move some say risked stigmatising a portion of the population.
Police received a guide last week to help implement the ban. It tells them not to remove veils by force and also notes the ban does not apply inside private cars.
A Muslim property dealer Rachid Nekkaz is urging women to keep wearing the veil if they want to.
He has urged supporters to go to Notre Dame cathedral in central Paris for a silent prayer during the day, and is also offering to help people pay the fines.
Mr Nekkaz said in a webcast he was putting a property worth around two million euros up for sale to help fund his campaign.
"I am calling on all free women who so wish, to wear the veil in the street and engage in civil disobedience," he said.
CNN