Transcript Slide 1

WHEN the French voted last year to ban the niqab, or
face-covering Islamic veil, the hard part was always
going to be applying the law. Sure enough, the scenes
captured by television cameras yesterday, as the law
came into effect, of two veiled women being arrested
by the police outside Notre Dame cathedral were
dramatic.
Yet the women were detained not for wearing the
niqab, but for carrying out an unauthorised
demonstration; they were later released without
being fined the €150 ($217) that the new law imposes.
But the incident underlines the sensitivities in
France surrounding any new rules that appear to
target Muslims.
Very few women in France wear the niqab (which the
French often call the burqa). Intelligence estimates put
the number at no more than 2,000, out of a total
Muslim population of some 5m. Kenza Drider, one of
the women arrested yesterday, had taken a train from
Avignon to Paris specifically to make a point outside
Notre Dame. But mayors in some immigrant-heavy
towns say that the numbers have risen over the years,
particularly among young French-born women who
seem to have a mix of religious and political
motivations. Some see the hand of hardline Islamist
groups, which work through local bookshops and
mosques to encourage the spread of the niqab. Many of
the women who adopt the garment as teenagers come
from families of north African origin, where there is no
tradition of the niqab.
The ban was widely seen not as a clampdown on
religious freedom but a means of reinforcing France’s
strict tradition of keeping religion out of public life.
(The law itself makes no specific mention of Islam but
forbids the covering of the face in public places on
public-security grounds.) Anything between 57% and
74% of the French, according to various polls, backed
the ban. The strongest voices of disapproval came from
outside France.
Since the law was passed, however, Mr Sarkozy’s
popularity has sunk to record lows and he has come
under pressure from a revived far-right National Front,
led by Marine Le Pen. Mr Sarkozy faces a tough
presidential election next year, and several polls
suggest that Ms Le Pen might even beat him.
Partly as a result, he has been talking tough, again, about
immigration and Islam. Last week his UMP (Union pour un
Mouvement Populaire) party staged a controversial debate
on laïcité, or secularism, which turned out to be all about
Islam. Even French Muslims who have no time for the
niqab-wearing fringe sense that Islam is being exploited
for political ends.
Such is the tense atmosphere that even moderate voices in
favour of the ban seem to have gone quiet, perhaps for fear
of further stirring anti-Islam sentiment. Fadela Amara, a
Muslim ex-minister in Nicolas Sarkozy's first government,
once called the burqa a “prison” ; now she seems to be
silent. Rama Yade, another of the president's ex-ministers
and of Senegalese origin, once said she considered the
niqab an infringement of women’s rights; last week she
quit the UMP, blaiming its divisive attitude on identity
matters.
The French may be trying to ban religion from public life,
but, with little more than a year before they go to the
polls, there are no signs that it is about to disappear from
political life.
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