The United Nations Human Rights Committee has heard complaints from two women in France regarding the country’s ban on Islamic full face veils, with sources claiming they could challenge the law.
The committee, which is comprised of lawyers and other judicial professionals, is expected to present the results of an inquiry into whether or not the French law on banning the burqa and niqab violates religious freedom sometime later this month, La Croix reports.
According to the French newspaper, sources close to the committee claim that the legal experts have determined that the ban violates human rights, and are expected to reveal findings that support repealing the 2010 law.
The findings will follow a report from the summer of this year by the committee, which found the dismissal of a woman from a private nursery in France because she wore an Islamic veil was religious discrimination, contradicting a French court which found the dismissal of the employee to have been justified.
Should the UN committee decide to challenge the burqa ban, they would also be at odds with the European Court of Human Rights, which has on several occasions upheld the French ban.
France was one of the first countries in the European Union to ban the burqa, but since 2010 they have been joined by a host of other countries including Austria, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, and others which have imposed full or partial bans on full-face Islamic veils.
Even some Muslim-majority countries like Morocco have imposed restrictions on the sale of the full face veil.
The latest country to ban the garment was Denmark in May 2018. The ban could see fines as high as £900 ($1,257) imposed on repeat offenders.
Despite the ban in France, some Muslim women still wear the veil and are often forced to remove it by police. In one case, police in Toulouse are believed to have forced a woman to remove her veil, allegedly sparking riots in one of the city’s districts later that day.
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