Author of Why the French Don’t like Headscarves (Princeton UP, 2007), Professor John Bowen of the University of Washington in St. Louis is interviewed about the new commission on the burqa and niqab, set to give its recommendations in December 2009. Bowen describes other European positions against the burqa and how it has trespassed French…
This Le Figaro interview features Jacques Myard, member of the National Assembly (UMP) who represents the Yvelines department, and Mohammed Moussaoui, president of the CFCM (the French Council of the Muslim Faith). The former expresses the necessity to ban burqas in France to protect the status of women, while the latter claims that such a…
The French National Assembly, with the support of President Nicolas Sarkozy, recently formed a special commission on the niqab . Its first hearings will be held next week and continue throughout the month, with recommendations expected before the end of the year. Parliamentary hearings are not generally open to the public, but no decision has…
France is maintaining “very great vigilance” toward actions and statements by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or North Africa, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said in a briefing. The al-Qaeda affiliate threatened vengeance for President Nicolas Sarkozy’s criticism of the face-covering veils worn by some Muslim women. The Algeria-based group issued a statement on…
Vénissieux, a city of 60, 000 in the outskirts of Lyon, has witnessed an important increase in the number of women wearing burqas and niqabs, according to this article by Le Figaro daily newspaper. Locals estimate there may be 100 burqa-wearing women in the small city, which is also home to communist-party mayor André Gérin,…
