LEGISLATION ON THE BURKA AND HIJAB

That this House condemns the vote in the French National Assembly to pass a bill banning garments that hide the face such as the burka and the hijab; recognises that this bill is a disproportionate bill considering that only two thousand of France's five million Muslims wear the burka; acknowledges that the majority of Muslim women that wear the burka do so out of personal choice and do not fit the stereotype of marginalised oppressed women; further recognises the Council of State's findings which found `no legally unchallengeable justification for carrying out such a ban' and that the burka posed `no specific threat to public order'; regrets that a Private Member's Bill has been tabled in this Parliament largely reflecting the conditions set out in the French bill; and urges the Government to campaign against any such Bill should it fully enter into Parliamentary discussion.