France's controversial ban on wearing Islamic veils such as burqas took effect Monday.

The ban pertains to the burqa, a full-body covering that includes a mesh window over the face, and the niqab, a full-face veil that leaves an opening only for the eyes.

The hijab, which covers the hair and neck but not the face, and the chador, which covers the body but not the face, apparently are not banned by the law.

Rally by Australian Muslims against proposal of ban in burqa (Muslim women veil) in Australia.

France's Senate has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would ban wearing the Islamic full veil in public.

The proposed measure was already backed by the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, in July.

The ban will come into force in six months' time if it is not overturned by constitutional judges.

The ban has strong public support, but critics point out that only a tiny minority of French Muslims wear the full veil.

The witness for the prosecution claims she won't be comfortable testifying without her burqa in a million-dollar fraud case.

Wearing a burka can be empowering and dignified for Muslim women, one of the UK government's most senior female ministers said yesterday.

The lower house of the Spanish Parliament is debating a proposal to prohibit the wearing of body-covering burqas and face-covering niqabs in all public spaces in Spain. The measure, which follows similar moves by nearly a dozen local and regional governments across Spain, marks a major escalation in the national debate over Muslim immigration and the role of radical Islam in Spain.

Critics say the rate of Muslim immigration to Spain now far exceeds the rate of assimilation. And polls seem to support that claim. According to a Pew Global Attitudes Survey, for example, religion is central to the identity of Spanish Muslims. Nearly 70 percent of Spanish Muslims identify themselves primarily as Muslim rather than as Spanish. This level of Muslim identification in Spain is similar to that in Pakistan, Nigeria, and Jordan, and even higher than levels in Egypt, Turkey, and Indonesia.

Flamboyant Rachid Nekkaz pledges €1m to pay fines of French Muslim women caught wearing the full veil

A French businessman is offering to help Muslim women pay any fines that they may receive for wearing the full veil in public if a law banning them is passed.

In a statement published in several newspapers, Rachid Nekkaz, who tried to stand in the presidential elections in 2007, said he would use proceeds from property sales for a €1 million fund to help women pay any fines.

Raised in what she described as a “minimally religious” household by parents who wore typical American clothes, Hebah used to think that women who wore a niqab were crazy, she said.

“It looked like they were suffocating,” she said. “I thought, ‘There’s no way God meant for us to walk around the earth that way, so why would anyone do that to themselves?’ ” Now many people ask that same question of her.

A Muslim woman in Italy has been fined 500 euros (£430) for wearing a burka in
what is believed to be the first case of its kind.

The Tunisian immigrant, Amel Marmouri, 26, was fined by police in the city of Novara, in the northern Piedmont region.
Mrs Marmouri was in a post office when police officers stopped her and issued her with the fine.
"As far as I know this is a first in Italy," said police officer Mauro Franzinelli.

Her husband, Ben Salah Braim, 36, said the family would struggle to pay the penalty.
He said his wife would continue to wear the full-length item of clothing because he did not want her to be seen by other men, but in future she would be forced to stay at home most of the time.
Novara introduced an ordinance in January that prohibits the wearing of burkas. The regulation invokes a 1975 anti-terrorism law, which prohibits people from wearing anything that obscures their faces and impedes identification.

The mayor of the town, Massimo Giordano, a member of the Northern League, said he had hoped that the new ordinance would have deterred Muslim women from wearing burkas and niqabs.
"But unfortunately it is apparently not yet clear to everyone that clothes preventing the wearer's identification can be tolerated at home but not in public places, in schools, on buses or in post offices," he said.

He said the new rule was introduced because it is "the only tool at our disposal to stop behaviour that makes the already difficult process of i