The Burqa Ban

It's a debate that's been raging in France for years.
Last summer French President Nicholas Sarkozy said "The burqa is not welcome in France".
That lead to an inquiry into whether women in France should be allowed to wear the traditional Muslim covering.
Today the results of that investigation are out. It's a controversial and complex story, and Genevieve Oger will break it down for us on the show.
An Ipsos poll for Le Point magazine claims 57 per cent of French people support banning the burqa.
But many in the French Muslim community say that will alienate Muslims and violates civil rights. Incidentally, there is at least one Imam in France who actually supports the ban. He argues the covering has no basis in Islam.
France has traditionally upheld the separation of faith and state. But The Economist predicts lawmakers will face criticism from the global community if the ban is enforced.
Saira Syed
World Headlines
- updated Underwear bomber sentenced to life in prison
- A Nigerian man who tried to blow up an international flight near Detroit on behalf of al-Qaida has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
- Honduras prison fire is world's deadliest video
- The prisoners who died in the Honduran prison fire had been locked inside an overcrowded penitentiary where most inmates had never been charged, let alone convicted, according to an internal Honduran government report obtained by The Associated Press.
- Amnesty accuses Libyan militias of unbridled torture video
- Armed militia groups in Libya have turned on one another and now rule most of the country, torturing their opponents with impunity, Amnesty International says.
- new Iran unlikely to attack 1st, U.S. Senate told
- Iran isn't likely to start or provoke a conflict with its neighbours or the U.S., an intelligence official tells a U.S. Senate armed services committee hearing.
- analysis Brian Stewart: The danger in shoving Greece too far
- How much pounding can one country take before it explodes and takes others down with it, Brian Stewart asks.

