Amman, April 25: French Justice Michele Alliot-Marie on Sunday defended a government plan to ban the full veil in public, claiming it is necessity for coexistence in France despite complaints from Muslims that it is an affront to their human rights.
“The first principle in France is religious freedom, respect for all religions and freedom of everyone to practise their religion. That is why we allow the construction of religious buildings all over the country,” she said in an interview in Jordan.
“A second thing to remember is that the Koran does not demand that women wear full veil — all senior Muslim leaders in France say this regularly,” she said of Islam’s holy book.
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government said last week it would push ahead with a ban on the full-face veil in public, including for Muslim tourists, despite state legal experts warning such a law could be unconstitutional.
“The second major principle in France is the rejection of communitarianism. The law treats everybody equally, and that’s the basis of the unity of the republic,” said Alliot-Marie, in Jordan for talks on legal cooperation.
“Before implementing the law, there will be a stage to educate people and explain why we want to do this.”
The planned ban has been condemned as an attack on religious freedom.
The Paris government has said a bill would be presented to ministers in May, seeking to ban the niqab and the burqa from streets, shops and markets and not just from public buildings.
It says only around 2,000 Muslim French women currently cover their faces. The niqab, which covers the face apart from the eyes, is widely worn on the Arabian peninsula and in Gulf states.
—Agencies