Two French police intelligence agencies have issued reports calling burqa use in the country a “marginal phenomenon,” one of which claimed fewer than 400 women wear the full-body covering. The wearing of burqas has been a controversial issue in France. French legislators have pondered banning the use of burqas and niqabs, full-face veils that ,unlike burqas, do no not obscure use of the wearer’s eyes altogether.
One of the reports, released by French intelligence agency Sous-direction de l’information générale, found only 367 women in France wear the burqa. But the report does not claim that number is a comprehensive figure, and urges further study into the issue, Le Monde reported. A committee of 32 legislators from all four major political parties in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, is expected to deliver its report on whether burqas should be banned by the end of the year. André Gerin called the new estimates “ridiculous.”
