Tag: Ban

A ban on the burka in France would help stem the spread of the cancer of radical Islam, a female Muslim minister says. Ms Amara said she was “in favour of the burka not existing in my country”. The comments come as French MPs hold hearings on whether to ban the garment, which covers the body from head to toe.

A woman in a Paris suburb was banned from a public pool for wearing a full-body burkini swimsuit, igniting a new round of national debate pitting religious freedom against secular values. Emerainville’s mayor and the pool management contend that the burkini ban was invoked strictly because of hygiene concerns, just as shorts, rather than Speedos, are not allowed, because they can be worn outside the pool area.

The government takes on a “walking prison”
When the French government decided in 2004 to ban the Muslim headscarf in state schools and other public buildings, it set off a heated debate over religious expression and women’s rights in a secular state. Now Nicolas Sarkozy has sparked another by calling the burqa, a head-to-toe Islamic garment, “a sign of subjugation;of debasement that is not welcome on French territory.”
Mr Sarkozy’s comments came after a group of deputies, led by Andre Gerin, a Communist, had called for a parliamentary inquiry into the wearing of the burqa, with a view to a possible ban. This would mean in all public places, since it is already banned in state institutions under the 2004 law. The deputies called burqas “veritable walking prisons.”

Religious groups have joined together to reject Lib Dem calls for faith schools to be banned from selecting children by religion.

As a fresh bid is made to reform the Act of Settlement, BBC News looks at the history of the law that bans the monarch marrying a Catholic.