PARIS: President Nicolas Sarkozy said the Muslim burqa would not be welcome in France, calling the full-body religious gown a sign of the “debasement” of women.
In the first presidential address to Parliament, Sarkozy faced critics who fear the burqa issue could stigmatize France’s Muslims and said he supported banning the garment from being worn in public.
“In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity,” Sarkozy said to extended applause at the Chateau of Versailles, southwest of Paris.
“The burqa is not a religious sign, it’s a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement — I want to say it solemnly,” he said. “It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic.”
Dozens of legislators have called for creating a commission to study a possible ban in France, where there is a small but growing trend of wearing the full-body garment despite a 2004 law forbidding it from being worn in public schools. Sarkozy said he was in favor of holding such an inquiry.
But the president added: “We must not fight the wrong battle. In the republic, the Muslim religion must be respected as much as other religions.”
France has Western Europe’s largest Muslim population, an estimated five million people, and the 2004 law sparked fierce debate both at home and abroad.
Even the French government has been divided over the issue, with Immigration Minister Eric Besson saying a full ban would only “create tensions,” while junior Minister for Human Rights Rama Yade said she was open to a ban if it was aimed at protecting women forced to wear the burqa.
A leading French Muslim group, the French Council for the Muslim Religion, has warned against studying the burqa, saying it would “stigmatize” Muslims.
Last year a Moroccan woman was refused French citizenship after social services said she wore a burqa and was living in “submission” to her husband.
There are no official figures but several thousand women are thought to wear the burqa in France.
US President Barack Obama this month defended the choice of some Muslim women to wear the Islamic head scarf. It is “important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear,” he said.
