Niqab-wearing women detained in France

Two burqa (veil) wearing Muslim women were detained by the police in France capital city Paris as a ban on the full veil or burqa came into effect.

The women were detained in front of Notre Dame cathedral here while they were taking part in ademonstration, reports said on last Tuesday.

The women were reportedly detained for participation in an unauthorized procession rather than for the veil.

A police spokesperson insisted that the detention was due to the unlawful demonstration rather that the veil.

However, law enforcing agencies now have toe right to slap fines on women covering their faces with veils.

Any woman found wearing niqab in public can be fined £136 and be forced to attend special citizenship classes.

Anyone forcing a woman to wear a burqa or niqab

could face a year in jail and a £26,500 fine.

Kenza Drider, who was among the women detained,

expressed anger that the police’s act.


“It’s not an act of provocation. I am only carrying

out my citizens’ rights, I am not committing a

crime… If they ask me for identity papers I’ll show

them,” she applied.


She reportedly lifted her veil before women officers

at the police station for identification purposes.

France had become the world’s first country to ban

veils in public, stating it imprisoned women

and contradicted national values of equality and dignity.