Deputies back call for burqa inquiry
The move could lead to a burqa ban in public places if the garment is ruled to be an attack on women’s liberty
DEPUTIES from left and right wings of the National Assembly have signed a call for a parliamentary inquiry into the burqa – the head-to-toe garment worn by some Muslim women.
The move, which threatens to re-ignite the “war of the veil” which shook schools in France in 2003, has been backed by 58 deputies.
If carried through it could mean that burqas would be banned from public areas.
Mr André Gerin, the PCF deputy for Vénissieux in the Rhône, started the petition saying people were confronted everywhere by women in burqas which was “not only an ostentatious religious display but also an attack on the dignity of women”.
An inquiry would look at why the burqa was being worn and put forward proposals to stop any increase “without stigmatising the people shut inside their walking prisons”.
Mr Gerin said if the burqa was seen as an attack on women’s liberty then it could be possible to legislate for a ban in public areas.
The rector of the Paris Mosque has been reported as conditionally backing the inquiry if it was used as a means of dialogue with Islamic leaders.
Following the war of the veil in 2003 the Assembly voted in 2004 to ban the wearing of religious garments and icons in schools.
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