France's 'Burqa Ban,' One Year Later

By: Sonja Matanovic | 04/11/2012

Radio producer Arwa Gunja traveled to Paris as an International Reporting Fellow to examine the impact of France's "burqa ban." The law, instituted one year ago, is a restriction on Muslim women covering their faces in the traditional burqa or niqab.

Widely supported in France, the ban was meant to free women of gender enslavement and help Muslims better integrate into French society. Gunja interviews the leader of an organization of women who choose to wear the Muslim garb despite the law, and finds that many who do so fear leaving their homes because they may be subject to fines by the police or harassment on the streets.

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