The Ban of the Veil

At an interview last summer with ITV journalists, discussion about France’s niqab ban became the topic of our conversation. It was a debate that had been ensuing across the media for months after Sarkozy promised to ban the veil.

Today the ban was implemented. The controversial legislation already sparked arrests. The first woman to be arrested for protesting ‘unauthorised’ outside Notre Dame said "I'm just expressing my freedom to be. A freedom of conscience, a freedom to come and go, a religious freedom.”

Yet France does not seem to recognise the contention that ‘freedom’ is behind most women’s choice to wear the veil. Hence legislation gives the heftiest fine to anyone found guilty of forcing a woman to cover their face, a fine up to 3000 Euros (that’s £26000). The alternative is one year’s imprisonment.

It seems that European law is swinging far to the right with the Netherlands, Italy and Germany also discussing the possibility of a ban. In London today about 50 people protested outside the French embassy. Their support for the French women affected by the ban is of course the underlying reason for the protest, but beneath is always the apprehension that a similar ban may make its way to our soil. Reassurances that Britain is ‘too tolerant’ for such a legislation is undermined not only by the Jack Straw’s previous comments, numerous polls which show public opinion in favour of a ban, but the prime minister’s recent comment that multi culturalism isn’t working.

At the interview, the journalist remarked that this debate is one that will fizzle down and flare up several times. With the ban now fully implemented and arrest already been made, I believe we have hardly seen the extent to which the debates surrounding the veil can flare up.