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France would need to demonstrate terrorist threat overides women’s right to veil the face for religious reasons Why would any Muslim woman choose to go out wearing a burqa? Her ability to see the world around her will be restricted by the mesh covering her eyes. She cannot eat or drink in public. A niqab – the full-face veil – is presumably a little easier to manage. A woman may use one hand to hold it up and the other to feed herself, though enjoying an ice-cream in a windy street must be something of a challenge. But it does give the wearer one intangible advantage: although she can see me, I cannot see her. It tells the world that she is a practising Muslim, just as I might identify myself as a Jew by wearing a kippa in public. Even that minimal kind of religious head-covering has been illegal in French state schools for the past six years. And, since Monday, it has been against the law for people in France to cover their faces with a burqa, a niqab, a hood or a mask while in a public place. There are exceptions for sporting and cultural events as well as for health and safety – but not for tourists. Head-coverings remain lawful. Muslim women understandably feel stigmatised and scapegoated by the French law. One told the Guardian that it was designed to humiliate people. The French ban is the first in Europe, according to Reuters. In Belgium, the lower parliamentary chamber voted a year ago in favour of banning the full veil. However, the reform is on hold because of long-term political deadlock. Seven of Germany’s 16 states have banned teachers in state schools from wearing Islamic headscarves. And wearing Islamic veils or headscarves is officially prohibited at universities in Turkey, a country that is predominantly Muslim but constitutionally secular. In Britain, the government ruled out a burqa ban last year. Damian Green, the immigration minister, said that “telling people what they can and can’t wear, if they’re just walking down the street, is a rather un-British thing to do”. That’s true, although there was a time when covering your face wasn’t very British either. One French activist said this week that she wanted to challenge the burqa ban at the European court of human rights. To do so she would have to provoke the authorities into arresting and prosecuting her. She would then need to be convicted and have her conviction upheld by the French appeal courts. What, then, might the Strasbourg court say? Article 9 of the human rights convention allows freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Freedom to manifest one’s religion is subject some limitations – but only to those regarded as necessary in a democratic society to protect the rights and freedoms of others. There is no suggestion that these women pose any kind of terrorist threat, requiring them to be photographed. It is difficult to argue that I have the right to see the faces of women walking past me in the street – even though my inability to do so may perhaps limit my freedom to live in a secular society. Delivering the FA Mann lecture last November, Lord Pannick QC said he would expect the human rights court to find that the French ban on face-coverings is in breach of article 9. “There is no public interest to weigh against the manifestation of religious beliefs,” Pannick said, “only the unease of the non-believer that women should wish so to conceal themselves from the public.” The human rights lawyer based his view on a ruling by the European court in February 2010. It was a victory for 127 members of a religious group who wear turbans and distinctive clothes inspired by those of the Islamic prophets. The Strasbourg court held that their conviction under anti-terrorism legislation for walking the streets while wearing religious clothing was a breach of their human rights. Each was awarded €10 compensation. The court emphasised that there was a distinction between wearing religious dress in public and wearing it in schools or other institutions where there might be good reason to insist on religious neutrality. Dressing in a turban, baggy trousers and a tunic may not be the same as covering all but one’s eyes. But the French ban on veils still seems short-sighted.oiuld Joshua Rozenberg is a freelance legal writer, commentator and broadcaster French burqa and niqab ban European court of human rights Human rights France Islam Religion Joshua Rozenberg guardian.co.uk