Paris, July 30: Two French police reports call the use of the burqa a “marginal phenomenon,” saying that fewer than 400 women in the country wear the all-covering Muslim robe, a French newspaper reported.
The burqa is a hot-button issue in France, a secular state where wearing explicitly religious symbols in public places like schools is tightly regulated.
French lawmakers recently revived the long-standing debate about whether Muslim veils are acceptable in public by proposing a ban of the face- and body-covering burqa.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, a conservative, appeared to support the proposal, saying in June that burqas make women prisoners and that they would not be tolerated in France.
Le Monde newspaper said the two reports by police intelligence agencies were given to the government, which is investigating the extent of burqa wear in France.
-Agencies