Germany: Burka ban to be proposed in security clampdown

[womanofthehills]

130. In France, the women only wear the niqab - no burqas - (not much difference)

The Burqa Ban: An Unreasonable Limitation on Religious Freedom or a Justifiable Restriction?

In the spring of 2011, France enacted a law banning the concealment of the face in public spaces (the “burqa ban”). The burqa ban creates two new punishable offenses in France. 1 First, wearing clothing designed to conceal one’s face in a public space is punishable by either a maximum of a €150 fine or by being required to take a class on the meaning of citizenship, or both. 2 Second, forcing a woman to wear a face-covering veil is punishable by one year of imprisonment or a €30,000 fine. 3 The burqa ban, which was first introduced by the French National Assembly 4 and passed “overwhelmingly” through both houses of the French Parliament, 5 went into effect in France on April 11, 2011. 6

In France, approximately 1,900 women wear the niqab and no women wear the burqa, according to a study prepared in 2009 and cited by the January 26, 2010 Parliamentary Commission’s report (“Parliamentary Commission’s Report”). 43 Half of the women who wear the niqab are under thirty years old, and ninety percent of the women are under forty years old. 44 Further, two-thirds of these women are of French nationality, and one-fourth of them are converts to Islam. 45 A statistic that was not ascertained, however, is how many of these women wear the niqab because they choose to (based on religious conviction, fear of harassment in public spaces, or cultural pride) and how many of these women are pressured to wear the niqab by their husbands, fathers, or Muslim religious official.

The compatibility of wearing the veil and gender equality is a contentious issue. To many, the veil represents an oppressive instrument that signifies women’s second-class status in Islam, rather than the fulfillment of a religious obligation for the women who wear them. 46 The Quran instructs men to ensure that women under their care or responsibility are “covered” when they go out in public, 47 and, accordingly, some women who wear any of the forms of veils see them as “sign[s] of male domination over women’s bodies and lives.”
48 Those who believe that the veil is a symbol of oppression regard regulations like the burqa ban as protection for women who would otherwise be forced to wear veils. They view the ban as addressing “[o]ne of the most salient concerns” for women who wear religioious
garb—that they do not choose to wear veils, but rather are required to wear them “by their family, their community, and their religion.”
http://law.emory.edu/eilr/content/volume-25/issue-3/comments/burqa-ban-limitation-religious-freedom-restriction.