Is France dithering over burqa ban?

„Marie Hassan, 23, born in France to parents with Yemeni roots, was approached by police outside her home on 21 April and told she would be fined for covering her face. Details were posted on Rachid Nekkaz's Facebook page. On Wednesday, Hassan was due to join campaigners for a press conference in the five-star Hotel Bristol on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré before making the short walk to the Elysée palace to deposit a cheque discharging her presumed debt to society. But Hassan, a single mother of two, had martyrdom snatched from her. Marseille police informed her she was not being fined after all.

Hiding any disappointment, she promised to go on defying the law. Denied one useful burst of publicity for his campaign, Nekkaz hit upon the idea of the Meaux demonstration. Told of the government's statements, he challenged ministers or officials to produce the evidence, claiming that on at least two occasions before Hassan's case arrests were reported but led to no further action. »I am in touch with 288 Muslim women who wear the niqab, they in turn know others and I am sure there have been no fines.« One detail beyond much doubt is Nekkaz's desire to seize on a case he can pursue all the way to the European court of human rights. For its part, the government suggests that women may simply not wish to approach him for reimbursement.

But whatever happens on the streets of Meaux, it is hard to escape the thought that here is another example of French policy being made with an eye to the 2012 presidential elections and the threat from Marine Le Pen's far right. Sarkozy's sincerity, when claiming the head-to-toe burqa imprisons women »behind netting«, is not an issue. But even as a parliamentary committee plodded through the inquiry that led to the new law, plenty of French voices were warning that a ban would sit uneasily with France and Europe's high-minded attachment to human rights. If Nekkaz is right about the dithering, that unease may well have spread to those burdened with the task of enforcement.”