French MPs poised to vote on burka ban

The French lower house is set to vote on a bill to ban the wearing of face-covering veils in public spaces. Similar laws are pending in Belgium, Spain and some Italian municipalities, but the ban is particularly sensitive in France, which has a large Muslim minority.

Burka illustration Source: Copyleft Attitude

Last week, Justice Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie told lawmakers debating the bill that its adoption would assert French values and help to better integrate Muslim communities into the national way of life.

She said being forced to wear the niqab or the burka "amounts to being cut off from society and rejecting the very spirit of the French republic that is founded on a desire to live together".

The vote also comes on the eve of French national Bastille Day holiday, which celebrates the secular republic.

The law is expected to get an easy passage through the National Assembly lower house but is expected to face a stiffer challenge at the Constitutional Court, France’s highest legal body.

The bill will also need to be passed by France upper house, the Senate, in September.