French ban on full-face veils upheld

In a case brought by a 24-year-old French woman, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that France was justified in introducing the ban in the interests of social cohesion.

STRASBOURG, FRANCE // France’s controversial ban on full-face veils was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday, rejecting arguments that prohibiting the burqa breaches religious freedom.

In a case brought by a 24-year-old French woman, with the support of a British legal team, the court ruled that France was justified in introducing the ban in the interests of social cohesion.

“The Court emphasised that respect for the conditions of ‘living together’ was a legitimate aim for the measure at issue,” a statement from the ECHR said.

It said the “ban was not expressly based on the religious connotation of the clothing in question but solely on the fact that it concealed the face”.

It also emphasised that states should be allowed a degree of discretion – or “a wide margin of appreciation” – on a policy issue which is subject to significant differences of opinion.

Two of the 17 judges, who spent several months deliberating on the case, dissented from the majority view that the ban did not breach the European Convention on Human Rights’ provisions protecting freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

But the judges agreed unanimously that the woman had not been a victim of discrimination. She had not been prosecuted under the law, which has resulted in only a handful of arrests since it was introduced in 2010.

The university graduate had requested anonymity for fear of reprisals in France over her action.

She had argued that being obliged to take off her veil in public was degrading.

In written evidence, she testified that she wore the full veil of her own free will and was willing to remove it whenever required for security reasons, addressing two of the main arguments put forward by French authorities in support of the ban.

The French government had argued that the ban was necessary to ensure gender equality, human dignity and “respect for the minimum requirement of life in society”.

The court dismissed the first two arguments but upheld the third, saying it was “able to understand the view that individuals might not wish to see, in places open to all, practices or attitudes which would fundamentally call into question the possibility of open interpersonal relationships”.

Under the ban, women wearing full-face veils in public can be fined up to €150, or Dh755.

Belgium and some parts of Switzerland have followed France’s lead and similar bans have been considered in other European countries.

The International League of Women’s Rights, founded by French feminist Simone de Beauvoir, welcomed Tuesday’s ruling as a “victory for secularism and women’s rights”.

Attempts to enforce the legislation in France have proved problematic and sometimes sparked confrontations, such as riots in the Paris suburb of Trappes last year.

The hearing comes just days after one of France’s highest courts upheld the 2008 sacking of a worker at a kindergarten in the Paris suburbs for wanting to wear a headscarf to work.

Also on Tuesday, an appeals court in Versailles outside Paris, will hear the case of the husband of a veiled woman whose violent action during a police identity check on his spouse earned him a three-month suspended prison sentence.

Many Muslims view France, officially a secular republic despite being overwhelmingly Catholic, as imposing its values on them and other religious minorities.

France has one of the biggest Muslim populations in Europe. Apart from the veil issue, there has been controversy in the past over whether schools and holiday camps should be required to provide halal meals.

* Agence France-Presse