Al-Qaeda's North Africa wing has threatened to take revenge on France for its opposition to the burka, calling on Muslims to retaliate against the country, the US monitoring service SITE Intelligence reported.

Earlier this month, President Nicolas Sarkozy said the burka, which covers the whole face, was not welcome in the strictly secular country.

Yesterday was the hijab (the Islamic headscarf long banned in French schools) and today, it is the niqab (the full veil), Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, head of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was quoted as saying: We will take revenge for the honour of our daughters and sisters against France and against its interests by every means at our disposal.

The group also called on Muslims to retaliate for what it called French hostility against the community and its attempt to obstruct Islam's practice on its territory. For us, the mujahedeen ... we will not remain silent to such provocations and injustices, Abdul Wadud said without elaborating, according to SITE.

We call upon all Muslims to confront this hostility with greater hostility, and to counter France's efforts to divide male and female believers from their faith with a greater effort ... (by) adherence to the teachings of their Islamic sharia.

A French muslim woman has been banned from wearing a 'burkini' in a swimming pool outside Paris.

The woman, named only as Carole was told that the garment, a swimsuit that covers most of the body, was inappropriate clothing for a public baths.

Pool staff said her three-piece Islamic swimsuit she bought in Dubai - consisting of a headscarf, tunic and trousers - was against pool regulations and unhygienic.

They had reminded her of the rules that apply in all [public] swimming pools which forbid swimming while clothed, said Daniel Guillaume, a manager at the pool in the suburb of Emerainville.

The ban was imposed as President Nicolas Sarkozy's government is considering an outright ban on all Islamic dress, such as the head-to-toe burka or niqab, that it considers a sign of subservience and not welcome in France.

Yannick Decompois, the district swimming pools director, said: This has nothing to do with secularism, but is a simply a hygiene problem. For the same reasons men are also banned from wearing shorts.

André Gérin, a Communist MP, who is heading a parliamentary commission looking at whether to ban the burka, said the burkini was militant provocation and should be banned.

Denmark's Conservative Party wants to extend the ban on Taleban symbol to all public places in Denmark

The governing party has rejected a proposal from its coalition partner, the Conservative Party, to ban people from covering their face with clothing such as burkas and niqabs.

We do not want to see burkas in Denmark, said Naser Khader, the integration spokesman for the Conservatives. Khader, who immigrated to Denmark from Syria and who helped established the Modern Muslims group, said the burka symbolised the Taleban and oppression of women. It had nothing do to with Islam.

Under the ban, women would not be prevented from wearing other forms of headscarves. It would apply to all public areas but not people’s homes. A penalty for violating the potential ban had not yet been considered.

The Conservatives’ proposal received the support of the Danish People’s Party, a key government ally, and the opposition Social Democrats. But the party’s government ally, the prime minister’s Liberal Party, said legislating against certain types of clothing was a step too far.

Burkas should not be permitted for people who work in the public sector, Peter Christiansen, the party’s political spokesperson, said: But that’s where we draw the line.

Muslim women have been banned from wearing the body-concealing swimming costume known as a burqini in the northern Italian town of Varallo Sesia.

Women wearing the garment, made up of a veil, a tunic and loose leggings, face a fine of €500 (£430) if they are spotted at swimming pools or rivers, the ANSA news agency reported.

The anti-immigration mayor of the northern Piedmont town said: The sight of a 'masked woman' could disturb small children, not to mention problems of hygiene.

All female staff at Dubai Bank, Muslim and non-Muslim, must wear a shailah (head scarf) and abaya (black cloak covering the whole body) starting this Ramadan, Gulf News has learnt.

A memo sent to staff says the bank has decided that all Muslim and non-Muslim female staff must wear a shailah and abaya.

A Dubai Bank official who would not reveal his name said a memo was issued to this effect by the human resources manager, informing employees that starting from the first day of Ramadan all female employees must wear a shailah and abaya regardless of their religion.

Our bank is Islamic and must follow Sharia in all respects, which will satisfy our clients, he said. While the decision takes effect beginning first of Ramadan, it has become a rule and part of the dress code for female employees at all times.

Female students in the Gaza Strip will be required to wear head coverings and full-length robes beginning this school year, the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip have announced.

According to the new regulations, any female student that does not attend class in the proper attire will be sent home.

The ministry also has ruled that male teachers cannot teach in girls' schools and women are not allowed to teach at boys' schools.

These guidelines join an increasing amount of reports from Gaza residents saying that modesty patrols were forcing women to wear head coverings, especially at Gaza's beaches, and that they were inspecting isolated cars in order to prevent unmarried couples being alone together.

Denmark's Conservative Party shelved a proposal to ban the burka after lawyers warned it could violate human rights, the justice minister said.

The centre-right party is the junior member in a minority coalition government with the Liberals, which opposed banning the full body garment worn by some Muslim women.

Justice Minister Brian Mikkelsen, a Conservative, said government lawyers had advised a ban could breach the European Convention of Human Rights and the Danish constitution. It is clear to me as minister of justice ... that we cannot sign up to a project that raises such legal issues, he said in a statement. But Mikkelsen added that a working group had been set up by the government to explore other ways of fighting against the burka's spreading popularity in public places. The burka represents a view of women that has no place in Denmark, he said in the statement.

Italy has become the latest European government to announce it was considering introducing a law which would make wearing a burqa illegal.

MPs from the anti-immigration Northern League party, a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's ruling right wing coalition, have presented the proposal in a bill.

Italy has more than one million Muslims but it is rare to see women wearing the full burqa.

The Northern League's proposal aims at amending a 1975 law, introduced amid concern over domestic terrorism, which bans anyone wearing anything which makes their identification impossible. The only exceptions are for justified cause - which until now has been interpreted to include religious reasons in court rulings against local bans on the burqa.

The Muslim Canadian Congress has asked Ottawa to ban the public wearing of the burka and the niqab in Canada. The two items are Middle Eastern clothing used for covering a woman's face.

Congress spokeswoman Farzana Hassan said the two garments are symbols of extremism and should not be worn in a country that supports gender equality. Hassan described the burka and the niqab as medieval and misogynist.

By covering their faces, Middle Eastern women hide their identity, which could be used as an excuse to hide criminals. Hassan pointed out it is a cultural practice that has Middle Eastern roots, instead of being tied up with the Islamic religion.

Hassan stressed the Koran and the Sharia law did not prescribe Islamic women to cover their faces with clothing. She added women are banned from wearing the burka inside the grand mosque in Mecca, which should justify the proposed prohibition of the practice in Canada.

The controversy over a ban of fully-veiled women in Egypt is sweeping the Middle East region, including Kuwait, with some voices against the full veil, niqab, and some others in favor.

Egypt's leading cleric, Mohammad Tantawi, has issued a fatwa (religious edict) saying that wearing a face veil was not an obligation for women under Islam. Salafist Kuwaiti lawmaker Mohammed Hayef Al-Mutairi has lambasted the senior Egyptian cleric by branding Tantawi's statement as shameless.

The clergyman's edict triggered an edict by Kuwait's fatwa authority at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs. The Kuwaiti edict rules that wearing hijab is mandatory for Muslim women. The Elections Law allows women to vote and run for an office provided they comply with Islamic Sharia, said conservative MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaie. He added that the Fatwa issued by the Awqaf Ministry confirms that women's hijabs is an obligation for Muslim women.

Sunni Muslim scholars are divided on whether a woman must cover her face, with the majority saying it is not an obligation, but all mainstream scholars agree a woman must cover her hair and her body with loose fitting clothes. Most Muslim women in Egypt wear the hijab, a veil that covers the hair, but an increase in women wearing the niqab has apparently alarmed the government. The ministry of religious endowments has distributed booklets in mosques against the practice.

In Kuwait, female drivers are barred from wearing the niqab due to security reasons. The regulation came about almost 10 years ago when Kuwaiti security authorities were pursuing sleeper terrorist cells. Authorities feared that the niqab individuals belonging to such cells could use the niqab to pass through checkpoints unnoticed.

Kuwait's highest court has ruled that women lawmakers are not obliged by law to wear the headscarf, a blow to the Muslims who want to fully impose Islamic Sharia law.

The Constitutional Court dismissed a case claiming that two of four women elected to parliament in May — Rola Dashti and Aseel al-Awadhi — can not be members of the legislature because they don't comply with the Islamic dress code.

Last week, the same court granted married women the right to obtain a passport without their husband's approval, saying the decades-old requirement was unconstitutional and compromised their humanity.

Switzerland's justice minister has said that her country could ban full-body Muslim veils.

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said seeing a woman in a burqa makes her uncomfortable.

If the number of women wearing a burqa increases, we could study a possible ban, said Widmer-Schlumpf at a news conference.

France will issue recommendations against full face veils but not pass a law barring Muslim women from wearing them.

Andre Gerin, chairman of a parliamentary inquiry into use of full face veils in France, reluctantly ruled out a ban one day after President Nicolas Sarkozy repeated his conviction that France is a country that has no place for the burqa.

France banned Muslim headscarves in state schools in 2004 following a similar inquiry and looked set to bring in an outright ban on veils covering the whole face, such as burqas or niqabs, when it launched the panel last June at the request of Gerin, a Communist deputy from Lyon.

But at its weekly hearings, legal experts, local officials, Muslim leaders and even some militant secularists have told the deputies on the panel that a ban could be anti-constitutional, counterproductive and impossible to enforce.

Gerin, who denounces the head-to-toe veils as walking coffins, told Europe 1 radio: We'll end up with recommendations ... not a law in itself against the burqa, maybe a symbolic law, a law of liberation (of women).

Backing off from a complete ban, he said the panel might propose radical measures to ban full face veils in municipal hospitals and other public institutions, but gave no details.

France could ban face-covering by Muslim women under a law drawing on sexual equality and public safety.

Jean-Francis Copé, the parliamentary leader of President Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement, said that wearing the burka had nothing to do with religion, but was about extremists who are testing the limits of the Republic.

He said that France's guarantees on sexual equality could be invoked, along with public safety, as the basis for a ban. People in France are expected to bare their faces, he said, and schools, for example, should not hand children after classes to people whose faces they cannot see.

No decisions have yet been taken and legal experts were trying to ensure that any legislation would not fall foul of the European Convention on Human Rights, he added. Related Links

Next month a parliamentary committee is to recommend measures to prevent women from wearing full veils. A police intelligence report leaked yesterday said that about 2,000 women in France covered their faces for religious reasons.

The cantonal parliament of Zurich has rejected a proposal by the far right Swiss People's Party (SVP) – Switzerland's largest party - to ban headscarves for female Muslim students in Swiss schools. The proposal was aimed at instilling respect of Swiss values in schools, the party's leadership says, and that people who settled in Switzerland needed to realise they could not turn up to work in a headscarf.

Adrian Amstutz, parliamentarian and senior member of the SVP is one of the strongest supporters of those bans: Muslims must be spurred to integrate into society, he said to Swiss News Worldwide. The more moderate, centre right Christian Democratic Party, has been advocating the ban on burqas, a body covering including a face veil, in a bid to defend women's rights.

The UK Independence Party is considering a call to ban the wearing of burka, it is reported, in an attempt to broaden its appeal. It would be the first national party to call for a total ban on the Islamic headgear; the far-right British National Party believes they should be banned from schools.

Lord Pearson of Rannoch, the leader of Ukip, wants to raise the issue of the influence of Sharia law in Britain, according to a report in The Times. He told the newspaper: We are taking expert advice on how we could do it. It makes sense to ban the burka — or anything which conceals a woman's face — in public buildings. But we want to make it possible to ban them in private buildings. It isn't right that you can't see someone's face in an airport.

The newspaper said Ukip would make an announcement on Sunday describing the burka as a threat to gender equality and claiming that it marginalises women and endangers public safety because terrorists could use them to hide their identity.

Women who wear Islamic veils in public in France face a £700 fine under new laws being proposed.

The amount could be doubled for Muslim men who force female members of their family to cover their faces.

Jean-Francois Cope, president of Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP Party, said the legislation was intended to protect the dignity and security of women.

He is set to file the draft law in the National Assembly after Sarkozy said veils were not welcome because they intimidated non-Muslims. We want a ban in public areas, said Cope, making it clear the veil would not be allowed in public buildings, or on the streets of France. He added: The wearing of the burka will be subject to a fine, probably of 750 euros. The fine would apply to all people on the public street whose face is entirely covered.

Sarkozy has called burkas a sign of subservience that imprison women, while immigration minister Eric Besson described them as an affront to national identity.

Update: Public Support

26th January 2010. Based on article from timesonline.co.uk

A report drawn up by French MPs will this week call for a ban on Afghan-style burqas and other garments that cover a woman's face.

The proposal has strong public support. According to an opinion poll by Ipsos for the magazine Le Point, 57% of voters favour a ban while 37% are opposed.

The recommendations of a parliamentary commission are expected to include a bar on wearing full veils on public transport and in schools, hospitals and public-sector offices including post offices. The commission is thought likely to call for a total ban after further consultation.

Spearheading the call for a complete ban is Jean-Francois Copé, head of the UMP faction in the lower house, who claims to have the backing of 200 MPs. Supporters of a total ban, who include Francois Fillon, the prime minister, argue that it would protect public safety and women's rights.

Update: Lawmakers Propose Ban

27th January 2010. Based on article from kippreport.com

French lawmakers have now called for a ban on the burqa in hospitals, schools and on public transport.

The ban on the veil would apply to anyone seeking public services, but it would not apply to people wearing the burqa on the street, according to a French parliamentary commission.

The commission was convened after French President Nicolas Sarkozy controversially told lawmakers last June that the traditional Muslim garment was not welcome in France.

Update: French Nationality Refused

6th February 2010. See article from thescotsman.scotsman.com

French prime minister François Fillon is to sign a decree denying French nationality to a man who acknowledged forcing his French wife to wear a burqa-style veil.

Fillon said French law allowed authorities to refuse nationality applications from those who did not respect the country's values.

Denmark's government says face-covering Muslim veils don't belong in Danish society but no ban is needed because their use can be limited under existing rules.

The centre-right government said the burqa - an all-covering dress - and the niqab face veil are diametrically opposed to the values on which Danish society is built.

It called for the full use of existing rules that allow schools, as well as both public and private employers, to demand that students, teachers and workers show their faces.

The use of the burqa or niqab ... deprives women of the right to interact in the Danish society on equal footing with men and women who do not wear the burqa or niqab, the government said.

In Sweden, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said face-covering veils represent the oppression of women. But he said he didn't support a ban, because that would make some women more isolated.