Head Covering Controversies

A woman wearing a niqab walks in the street in Marseille December 24, 2009. France's ruling UMP party plans to present a bill to parliament in January that aims to ban full Islamic veils in all public places and not only in certain buildings and the bill would be accompanied by a resolution related to respect for women. Both propositions would be handed to parliament during the first two weeks of January, before the conclusions of a French parliamentary inquiry into the all-covering niqab and burqa are unveiled.