France may impose 700-pound fine for women wearing burqas

London, Jan 8 (ANI): A proposed new law in France will enable authorities to impose a fine of 700 pounds on women wearing burqas.

French MPs will vote later this month on whether it should be made illegal for people to cover their faces in public.

If the bill becomes law, full Islamic face veils like the burqa and the niqab will be banished from the French streets, The Sun reports.

Jean-Francois Cope, the head of President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP party, said he wants anyone caught wearing a burqa or a niqab to be fined.

He is also proposing a bigger fine for anyone found to have forced a woman to wear a burqa.

Anyone refusing to pay up could be arrested and eventually face prison.

Cope told France's Le Figaro Magazine: "Wearing a burqa will be considered an offence with a fine of 750 Euros. The law would ban anyone from completely covering their face in public, with certain exceptions for cultural events and carnivals."

It comes after months of nationwide debate on whether to make it illegal for women to hide their faces when out in public. (ANI)