Woman fined for driving while wearing burka

A woman has been fined for driving while wearing a burka because the garment "reduced her field of vision".

Published: 5:07PM BST 03 Jun 2010

Police stopped the Muslim woman during routine drink-drive checks on motorists in Louvroil, northern France.

The Islamic driver had not been drinking but instead officers issued her with a £17 fine for breaking road safety rules.

Two months ago, a separate woman was pulled over in Nantes, western France, for driving in a full face veil and also fined.

The latest incident comes as French MPs prepare to vote on whether to impose a full ban on wearing burkas and niqabs later this year.

Moves to ban the burka in France come after a year of heated national debate and mounting public tensions over the issue.

Last month, France's reported its first known case of 'burka rage', when a female lawyer ripped off a Muslim woman's veil in a bust-up in a clothes shop.

And last year a Muslim woman took her local council to court after she was banned from wearing a 'burqini' swimsuit at her local pool for 'hygiene reasons'.

The proposed law that hiding your face in public is 'an offence to the nation's values' has already been approved by the French cabinet and will go before MPs in July.

Under the rules, women who hide their faces or husbands that force them do so will face steep fines and prison sentences.

Men could be fined up to £13,000 and jailed for a year for forcing their wives to wear a burka, while women would face a smaller fine of around 130 pounds and ordered to undergo 'citizenship classes'.

France has already banned wearing any religious garb such as veils, Jewish skullcaps and crucifixes in schools.

Belgium has already imposed a full ban and there is widespread support for a similar law in the Netherlands, while Switzerland recently voted to ban the construction of new minarets.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7801022/Woman-fined-for-driving-while-wearing-burka.html