France still bans face coverings, but requires face masks
Per Le Devoir, France’s mandatory face mask policy highlights the absurdity of the face veil ban that targets Muslim women:
“In France, at the moment, a woman who wears a niqab risks a fine of €165, but she risks at the same time, by complying with this law, a fine of €135 by appearing in the metro without a mask.”
Women who wear burqas can also be sent to a mandatory “citizenship” course, the Washington Post reports. “If this temporary situation was painful and difficult for us to live in because it hampered our freedom to come and go, then imagine what the French women who wear the headscarf have been feeling for 10 years,” political scientist Fatima Khemilat told the Post.
