France: Ban will also apply to tourists

France: Ban will also apply to tourists


Muslim tourists in France will be forbidden to wear the full-face veil along with French residents under the government's plan to ban the garment in public places, a minister said on Thursday.


"When you arrive in France, you respect the laws in force.... Everyone will have to respect the laws in France. That's how it is," Nadine Morano, a junior minister for families, said on the radio station France Info.


Hundreds of thousands of visitors come to France each year from the Middle East, according to estimates from the tourism ministry, and veiled women are a common sight in the luxury stores on Paris shopping boulevards.


Morano said women breaching the ban would be fined but would not be unveiled "on the spot".


Morano said the planned ban was in line with France's secular principles but also aimed to give "a message at international level" and would apply equally to visitors from abroad.


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Source: Expatica (English)

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