By SYLVIE CORBET


PARIS (AP) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered
legislation that would ban women from wearing Islamic veils that fully
cover the face and body in public places, the government said Wednesday.
It
is Sarkozy's first political action toward an outright ban, though he
has repeatedly said such outfits oppress women and are not welcome in
France, home to a firmly secular government.
Government spokesman
Luc Chatel said after a Cabinet meeting Wednesday that the president
decided the government should submit a bill to parliament in May on an
overall ban on such veils "in all public places."
That ups the
stakes in Sarkozy's push against veils such as the burqa and niqab and
chador. Some in his own party have bristled at a full-out ban, and
France's highest administrative body has questioned whether it would be
constitutional.
Sarkozy insisted that "everything should be done
so that no one feels stigmatized," according to Chatel. Sarkozy said the
veils "do not pose a problem in a religious sense, but threaten the
dignity of women."
Chatel did not say how the new bill would
affect a resolution already slated for discussion in parliament May 11
on ways of limiting the full veils.
France, nominally Roman
Catholic, but also home to western Europe's largest Muslim population of
at least 5 million. Very few French Muslim women wear face-hiding
veils, but the issue has become a flashpoint of debate on national
identity, the rights of religious groups in France's secular society and
integration of France's immigrant populations.
Legislators and
members of the government have been discussing ways to limit veils such
as the burqa and niqab and chador for months. France banned Muslim head
scarves and other "ostentatious" religious symbols from classrooms in
2004.


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Personally, I think this is awful. Banning veils and coverings like burqas because one believes these items of clothing "opress women" is faulty thinking. It is about as extreme as the laws in Iran that force women to wear them and 'police' their wear strictly. 
Many Muslim women regard burqas and veils as a matter of pride.  Places like Syria that allow women a choice without any stigma attached to either finds women in jeans and contemporary clothing- to fully covered, all within the same families.  While the veils and coverings are tied to religious beliefs, they are also deeply rooted in culture and tradition. 
I once (1970's) knew a woman whose husband wanted her to shed her coverings after they moved to the USA to better assimilate into our population.  He did not want his employers to see his wife covered because he feared it would accentuate their differences.  It was very hard for her.  The loss of her veil made her feel very insecure and she hated to go anywhere. 
The nuns at the convent where I was as a teenager felt the same way.  When they were forced to stop wearing a habit and wear conventional clothing, they felt stripped of something that was a matter of pride for them.  The older nuns never fully adjusted.  It was really sad.