France's lower house approves sweeping ban on Islamic face veils
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
PARIS -- The French parliament's lower house enacted a sweeping but constitutionally vulnerable law Tuesday barring women from wearing full-face Islamic veils anywhere in public.
The National Assembly's 335-1 decision was scheduled for a vote in the Senate in September. If ratified, the law will make France the second Western European nation after Belgium to ban outright what has become the most prominent symbol of the growing Muslim presence across a continent steeped in traditions of secularism and Christianity.
Similar laws have been discussed, but not passed, in Spain, Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands. In addition, a number of European cities have enacted municipal bans, prohibiting the veils in public buildings and imposing other restrictions.
Apparently by coincidence, France's nationwide ban advanced on the eve of Bastille Day, which marks the 1789 French Revolution that gave birth to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and helped enshrine France as a beacon for the respect of human rights.
(More here.)
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
PARIS -- The French parliament's lower house enacted a sweeping but constitutionally vulnerable law Tuesday barring women from wearing full-face Islamic veils anywhere in public.
The National Assembly's 335-1 decision was scheduled for a vote in the Senate in September. If ratified, the law will make France the second Western European nation after Belgium to ban outright what has become the most prominent symbol of the growing Muslim presence across a continent steeped in traditions of secularism and Christianity.
Similar laws have been discussed, but not passed, in Spain, Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands. In addition, a number of European cities have enacted municipal bans, prohibiting the veils in public buildings and imposing other restrictions.
Apparently by coincidence, France's nationwide ban advanced on the eve of Bastille Day, which marks the 1789 French Revolution that gave birth to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and helped enshrine France as a beacon for the respect of human rights.
(More here.)
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