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French Muslim minister backs ruling against Faiza M

Friday, 18 July 2008

French Muslim minister backs ruling against Faiza M

Urban Affairs Minister Fadela Amara, who is a Muslim member of the government in France has said she supports a court's ruling that denies citizenship to a Moroccan woman known as Faiza M, who wears the burqa.

Ms Amara, who is a women’s rights campaigner, is reported in the French newspaper, Le Parisien, as describing the burqa as a "prison".

32-year-old Moroccan woman, Faiza M, who was applying for citizenship of France, was informed that her practice of being a "radical" Muslim was not compatible with values of the country.

Faiza M has lived in France since 2000 with her French husband and their three French-born children.

Ms Amara, who was born in France with Algerian parents, said she supported the high court ruling in June, and in Le Parisien she also said: "It is not a religious insignia but the insignia of a totalitarian political project that advocates inequality between the sexes and which is totally devoid of democracy."

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