French Burka Ban comes into force

[alexxxxx]

It is not illegal in the UK to wear a balaclava. Some places ask you to remove them though like motor cycle helmets.

This is quite interesting as there was a demonstration in Paris and a whole crowd turned up with their faces covered with Masks, balaclavas, motorcycle helmets etc and it was only the woman wearing the burka that got arrested. Only 2000 woman wear them - seems to just be Sarkozy(sic) trying to drum up votes but I think it will backfire badly on him. This is going to run and run.

Rising front nationale headed by le pen's daughter is basically making big grounds (much more active politically in france than the BNP) and he wants to make sure he doesn't lose any ground to them.

and to people saying 'oh and what happens if a shop owner wants people to take off their burkha' - AFAIK it isn't actually illegal to ask people to not wear one and shop owners are free to serve whoever (as long as they aren't being discriminating). If they have a rule saying faces must be shown (no balaclavas, no bike helmets) i can't see why they wouldn't be allowed as it could be argued it is reasonable. However - the woman in the burkha is equally entitled to go to the press and say that she thought the shop owner was being unfair etc etc, does a shop owner want their shop in a negative light?

[GommeInc]

Rising front nationale headed by le pen's daughter is basically making big grounds (much more active politically in france than the BNP) and he wants to make sure he doesn't lose any ground to them.

and to people saying 'oh and what happens if a shop owner wants people to take off their burkha' - AFAIK it isn't actually illegal to ask people to not wear one and shop owners are free to serve whoever (as long as they aren't being discriminating). If they have a rule saying faces must be shown (no balaclavas, no bike helmets) i can't see why they wouldn't be allowed as it could be argued it is reasonable. However - the woman in the burkha is equally entitled to go to the press and say that she thought the shop owner was being unfair etc etc, does a shop owner want their shop in a negative light?

Depends how you interpret the law really. The Equality Act 2010 might be used in some cases where a woman wearing a Burkha (or any other individual, man, woman or religion) is asked to remove the clothing or reveal her face. They could argue that they are being treated unfairly and their beliefs are being targetted, whether the shop owner is being polite or not. It was used a lot between the Christian couple who were brought to court by a gay couple, and the Christian couple lost because the business is a seperate individual to their own beliefs. So a shop owner could easily be attacked in the same way.

That said, many women who wear garments that cover their face happily remove them because they have some amount of common decency and do not want to cause any fuss. It's only irritable people who would dare do such a thing.