French Parliament opens debate on veil ban

Paris, Jul 7: French parliament started a debate on the controversial issue, the ban veiling of faces in public before the bill is expected to be appoved.

If the ban on burqas becomes law, women wearing viel in public will have to pay the fine of 150 euros ($184), or be compelled to take a class in citizenship or both. Besides this if someone is involved forcing the lady to conceal the face, he would be awarded with a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a fine of upto 30,000 euros.

If it is child who would be compelled to wear the veil, the parent or the person who compelled the child to do so would be granted with a fine of 60,000 euros and two years imprisonment.

The vein-ban bill is expected to be approved as the ruling UMP party and its allies have the commanding majority in both houses and the opposition Socialist lawmakers are also expected to support it, though it was questioned by a key government advisory body.

The council of State had pointed out that the European Court of Human Rights has preserved the freedom for individuals to live their lives according to their convictions. So it would be difficult to establish that wearing the veil insults the dignity of woman if she wears it voluntarily.

The law to ban viel have been passed by Belgian Parliament and is going on in Spain.

OneIndia News