France could bar Muslim women from wearing full veils in public, a government minister said yesterday as parliament took action over concerns about an increase in women who are wearing the niqab and burka in big cities.

The latest controversy over dress habits among France’s six million Muslims follows public differences this month between Presidents Obama and Sarkozy over the merits of legislating on religious clothing.

A group of 58 MPs from the Left and Right called on Wednesday for parliament to react to the phenomenon of women who are adopting what they called oppressive head-to-toe Islamic dress that “breaches individual freedoms”.

Luc Chatel, the Industry Minister and government spokesman, supported the MPs. “If it were determined that wearing the burka is a submissive act, and that it is contrary to republican principles, naturally parliament would have to draw the necessary conclusions,” he said.

Asked whether that would mean legislation, he replied: “Why not?”

The new debate over Muslim dress is reviving passions that surrounded France’s 2004 law banning religious headcover in state schools. André Gerin, a Communist MP, led the motion for an inquiry, calling the burka and niqab “a moving prison” for women.

Women’s groups, including some Muslim-led ones, back new measures against the practices of a growing but still small minority of radical Muslims.

Fadela Amara, a rights campaigner of Algerian background, who is the Housing Minister, said that she was alarmed by the number of women “who are being put in this kind of tomb”. She added: “We must do everything to stop burkas from spreading.”

Muslim leaders have mixed views about new legislation. Dalil Boubakeur, the rector of the Paris Mosque, supported an inquiry, saying that face covering for women was a fundamentalist practice originating in Afghanistan that was not prescribed by Islam. The national Muslim Council, which is less tied to the Establishment, accused lawmakers of wasting time on a fringe phenomenon.

“To raise the subject like this . . . is a way of stigmatising Islam,” said Mohammed Moussaoui, the head of the council. There are no precise figures, but experts estimate that several thousand women, mainly born in France, have taken to full costumes with face covering.

In 2004, when he was Interior Minister, Mr Sarkozy was not enthusiastic about the school headscarf ban and he remains wary of stigmatising Muslims.However, he defended the French approach when the US President visited two weeks ago. He is unlikely to be sympathetic to further prohibitions.

Mr Obama had taken a swipe at French and other European laws in a speech in Cairo in which he said that the United States prized freedom of religion and “we are not going to tell people what to wear”.

Mr Sarkozy told Mr Obama in Normandy on June 6 that French principles of equality meant that people should not display religious affiliation in state institutions.

He added: “It is not a problem that young girls may choose to wear a veil or a headscarf as long as they have actually chosen to do so, as opposed to this being imposed upon them, be it by their families or by their environment.”

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