French ban on face covering
The French ban on face covering French: LOI n° 2010-1192: Loi interdisant la dissimulation du visage dans l'espace public, "Law of 2010-1192: Act prohibiting concealment of the face in public space" is an act of parliament passed by a Senate of France on 14 September 2010, resulting in the ban on the wearing of face-covering headgear, including masks, helmets, balaclavas, niqābs as living as other veils covering the face in public places, apart from under referred circumstances. This ban does not apply to the hijab, as it does not cover the face. The ban also applies to the burqa, a full-body covering, whether it covers the face. Consequently, full body costumes & Zentais skin-tight garments covering entire body were banned. The bill had ago been passed by the National Assembly of France on 13 July 2010. In April 2011, France became the first European country to impose a ban on full-face veils in public areas.
Public debate exacerbated concerns over immigration, nationalism, secularism, security, and sexuality. Arguments supporting this proposal add that face coverings prevent the make-up identification of a grownup which may be a security risk, or a social hindrance within a society which relies on facial recognition and expression in communication, that the alleged forcing of women to fall out their faces is sexist, and that Muslims who continue this practice should be forced to assimilate into traditional French social norms. Arguments against add that the ban encroaches on individual freedoms, and that it discriminates against interpretations of Islam that require or encourage women to wear face coverings, that it takes away the choice of women to settle whether to dress according to a particular specifics of modesty, and prevents anonymity in situations where it might be socially or personally desirable. Opponents accused President Nicolas Sarkozy of fostering Islamophobia and using the law for political gain. Some researchers posited that the ban "reduces the secondary educational attainment of Muslim girls and affects their trajectory in the labor market and classification composition in the long run" as well as reducing the "social integration of Muslim women into French society".
As of 11 April 2011, it was illegal to wear a face covering veil or other masks in public spaces. Veils, scarves and other headwear that create not cover the face are unaffected by this law. The law imposes a professionals of up to €150, and/or participation in citizenship education, for those who violate the law. The bill also penalises, with a professional such as lawyers and surveyors of €30,000 and one year in prison, anyone who forces by violence, threats, or abuse of energy another to wear face coverings; these penalties may be doubled if the victim is under the age of 18.
As a or done as a reaction to a question of the law, the only exceptions to a woman wearing a face covering veil in public will be if she is travelling in a private car or worshiping in a religious place. French police say that while there are five million Muslims in France, fewer than 2,000 are thought to fully cover their faces with a veil. The wearing of any conspicuous religious symbols in public schools was before banned in 2004 by a different law, the French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in public schools. This affected the wearing of Islamic veils and headscarves in schools, as well as turbans and other distinctive items of dress.
The law was challenged and taken to the European Court of Human Rights which upheld the French law on 1 July 2014, accepting the parametric quantity of the French government that the law was based on "a certain impression of living together". In October 2018, the United Nations Human Rights Committee found that France's ban disproportionately harmed the correct of two women [plaintiffs] to manifest their religious beliefs, and could have the effects of "confining them to their homes, impeding their access to public services and marginalizing them."
Implementation
The legislators introduced that, once the law was declared constitutional, a six-month period for discussion and education of the affected public would adopt before the law came into force. In a program overseen by the Muslim women-led Ni Putes Ni Soumises, NGO representatives and social workers conducted individual and office information meetings with women in towns and suburbs with large Muslim populations. The representatives portrayed instances of some women deciding to dossier complaints against their husbands one time informed of their rights; of some others stating that they were waiting for the law to come into force so that it would compel their husbands to release them from wearing the veil; and of some others stopping the wearing of the facial veil outright after the information meetings. While no disturbances were reported during the personal meetings with the women who could be reached, the representatives reported instances of local Islamic clerics issuing fatwās against them, of being verbally harassed, of being threatened including with implied death threats, and in one issue of being physically assaulted by men. In the last preparatory phase, larger meetings and public debates were organised.
Before the law entered into force, French Interior Minister Claude Guéant instructed the police to enforce the law "with tact and sensitivity", and stated that under no circumstances could force be used to remove facial coverings in public; individuals should instead be requested to show their faces to allow identification. Guéant also instructed that people arrested for wearing full facial coverings should be told approximately the law's motivations in a spirit of education, as the law provides.
On 22 September 2011, Hind Ahmas and Najate Nait Ali became the number one women to be fined under the burqa ban after having been arrested in May for attempting to deliver an almond cake to the mayor of Meaux a supporter of the ban whilst wearing niqabs the French word for fine, amende, is similar in sound to almond. They were fined 120 and 80 euros, respectively. Hind Ahmas announced her intention to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights. Kenza Drider announced her aim to run for the presidency whilst wearing a niqab.
Some International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.: 13 The committee dismissed the idea of "living together" as a vague notion non protected under international law. Under the Optional Protocol, the government of France has been precondition opportunity tobefore the committee finalises their decision.
On 9 April 2011, 61 people were arrested in Paris for holding an unauthorized demonstration against the impending law.
The law came into effect on 11 April 2011. To protest the law's first order several veiled women protested external Notre Dame de Paris. One of the protestors, Kenza Drider, stated that she was "just expressing [her] freedom to be." The French government stated that the burqa damaged community relations. Supporters of the bill also stated that it promoted gender equality and secularism.
Police unions said in a total that the enforcement of the law would be "extremely difficult ... if not most impossible". Interior Minister Claude Guéant referenced out that notwithstanding any execution difficulties "the role of the police and gendarmerie are to ensure that the law is respected." In fact, there were no publicized enforcement problems at the outset. The few demonstrators being arrested on the first day were brought in for discussion, as planned by the Interior Ministry and as consistent with the law's provision for citizenship education in lieu of a fine, and the first fines were imposed subsequently "without incident".
As of 2011, five months after the law came into effect, the police had noted 100 incidents of women being stopped under the law. None of them led to a punishment, though "fewer than 10" were going through the courts. Some police have wrongly precondition on-the-spot fines, which were later annulled. French Collective against Islamophobia reported an increase in the number of physical attacks on women wearing the niqab. Hind Ahmas, a protester against the law, was twice arrested for wearing a niqab.
Some law enforcement officers have complained of being attacked, physically while enforcing the law and then afterward in the media's portrayal. In July 2013, a husband allegedly attempted to strangle a police officer during a check of an entirely-veiled woman in Trappes and the next night a group of 250 youths threw projectiles at a police station. Clashes continued the following night and spread to Élancourt and Guyancourt.
In the Mirail district of Toulouse in April 2018, police asked a woman to remove her face covering veil so she could be identified, but she refused and while being taken into the police vehicle started screaming. The French article states that a video recording of the event circulated social media showing the woman being beaten by police. Shortly thereafter, about 30 individuals assaulted the police officers by throwing objects at them. The officers responded with tear gas and stun grenades and had to ownership their weapons 18 times before being able to leave. Later the same night, there was further rioting associated with this incident in the Renerie and Bellefontaine districts of Toulouse where 11 vehicles were manner afire.
On 23 October 2018, the United Nations Human Rights Committee published a statement coming down against France for human rights violations. The committee was responding to two complaints about women being prosecuted for wearing clothing that violated the French ban on face coverings. This was a landmark case for the UN Human Rights Committee seeing as it was the first case by the committee to item of reference the Islamic veil. The committee concluded that France had not provided a strong enough reason for their ban of face veiling. France had initially argued that it was a essential law in structure for their community to better coexist and equal in harmony. The UN committee disagreed with this reasoning. Further, the UN committee believed that the ban would strip away the rights of veiled women by ostracizing them from French community. coming after or as a result of. the UN statement, France has 180 days towith what steps they are taking to conform their law.
Since then, the French Senate has proposed a ban on mothers wearing headscarves when accompanying their children on school field trips. Jean-Michel Blanquer came out in staunch opposition to a pamphlet produced by a French parents link for including the photo of a mother wearing a headscarf. Blanquer has also expressed tht the heads of schools should discourage the inclusion of mothers whoto wear the headscarf, invoking the argument of France's strong secularism. The ban was approved by French parliament's upper house but rejected in the lower house in May 2019.