France officially bans women from wearing burqa

Paris: France — home to Europe’s biggest Muslim population — today officially banned women from wearing full-face veils in public places.
Other European countries have drawn up bans on the burqa and the niqab but France is the first to risk stirring social tensions by putting one into practice.
The law comes into effect at an already fraught moment in relations between the state and France’s Muslim minority, with President Nicolas Sarkozy accused of stigmatising Islam to win back votes from a resurgent far right.
French officials estimate that only around 2,000 women, from a total Muslim population estimated at between four and six million, wear the full-face veils that are traditional in parts of Arabia and South Asia.