A novel way for French woman to get around the veil ban (or ‘burqa ban’) has been put forward as the first woman was arrested for wearing a full-face veil yesterday.
A Youtube video instructs French Muslim women how to get past the burqa and niquab ban legally.
How to take of a niqab legally in France.
On Monday, the day after France’s controversial law came into effect, a 28-year-old woman was fined €150 for having her face covered in a public place.
Police have not specified whether the woman was wearing a burqa, a full-body covering that includes a mesh over the face, or a niqab, a full-face veil with an opening for the eyes.
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It is now illegal to wear either type of veil in a public place in France.
The law has been criticised as discriminatory by human rights group and has been seen to feed the prejudices of France’s baying anti-immigration movement.
However France has defended the veil ban, saying that covering then face undermines French values of equality, dignity and national identity.
France’s national consultative commission on human rights reported a rise in attacks on mosques in 2010 and has warned that veil ban will increase “anti-Muslim feeling” in certain “fringes” of French society.
