First women convicted in France over banned Muslim face veil

Sep 22, 2011, 11:13 GMT

Paris - A French court on Thursday fined two women for wearing Islamic face veils in public, in the first conviction since a ban on wearing the veils came into effect in April.

The court in the town of Meaux, about 40 kilometres east of Paris, fined Hind Ahmas, 32, and Najate Nait Ali, 36, for appearing outside the local town hall in niqabs - a veil that covers the hair and face with a slit for the eyes.

Their lawyer Gilles Devers told the German Press Agency dpa Ahmas was fined 120 euros (164 dollars) and her co-accused 80 euros. He said the judge gave no explanation for the difference in the amounts of the fines.

Devers said he would appeal their conviction in France, and if that failed, possibly before the European Court of Human Rights, claiming the ban violates the women's basic rights.

'The problem is not the fine. The problem is that these women are effectively under house arrest. That's the real punishment,' Devers said.

France was the first European country last year to ban the wearing of the Islamic burqa, or full-body covering, and niqab in public. Since the ban came into effect dozens of women have been booked by police but no women had been fined in court.

Businessman Rachid Nekkaz, founder of a group called Don't Touch my Constitution that is campaigning against the ban, told dpa he had paid the fines.

Nekkaz has set up a 1-million-euro fund to help cover fines handed to wearers of the burqa or niqab in France, Belgium and other European countries that have or are considering face veil bans.

The two women were fined for showing up at Meaux town hall on May 5 with a birthday cake for Mayor Jean-Francois Cope, who is also the leader of President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative ruling Union for a Popular Majority (UMP).

The cake was made of almonds - a word that sounds like the French word for fines (amendes) - and was meant as a dig at the government over its timid application of the ban.

A divorced mother of a three-year-old girl, Ahmas has taken part in numerous appearances outside prominent public buildings in order to try bait the authorities.

She said she wanted to be fined, so that she could challenge the law, which she sees as an attack on her freedom of religion.

An estimated 2,000 women in France were estimated to wear the burqa or niqab when the law was passed last year. Since then, a number of women have discarded the veil to avoid getting in trouble with the police or being harassed by people on the street.

Several niqab wearers say they have suffered a sharp increase in verbal and physical attacks since the ban came into effect.