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Eskeptik posted on 1260479884|%A: %d %B, %Y|agohover
Muslim men who force their wives to wear a burkha are not welcome in France, the country's justice minister has said.
Michelle Alliot-Marie said husbands making their wives wear a full body coverings did not 'share the nation's values'.
They would have their citizenship requests rejected, she said.
Her remarks come as a French government committee is considering whether to make it illegal to wear burkhas and niqabs on the streets of France.
The burkha is a full-body covering worn largely in Afghanistan with a mesh screen over the eyes, and the niqab is a full-body veil with slits for the eyes.
President Nicolas Sarkozy called them 'a sign of subservience and debasement that imprisoned women', saying they were not not welcome in France.
The country's immigration minister Eric Besson described them as 'an affront to national identity'.
Women's rights groups and left wing MPs went even further, describing them as a 'walking coffin'.
Mrs Alliot-Marie said today she would await the findings of the commission on the burkha, due later this month.
But she added: 'There are still a certain number of basics on which we must stand firm.
'The wearing of the niqab or burkha is a problem that affects our ability to live together, the values of the republic and in particular human dignity.
'For instance, someone who would be seeking French citizenship and whose wife wears the full veil is someone who would not appear to be sharing the values of our country.
'Therefore in a case like that one, we would reject his request.'
France - home to Europe's largest five million Muslim population - already passed a law in 2004 forbidding students and staff from wearing veils and other religious symbols in schools as part of a drive to defend secularism.
This month Switzerland voted to ban minarets on mosques across the country. Burkhas and niqabs are worn by an estimated 2,000 women in France.
In September a French mother was banned from wearing a 'burkini' swimsuit at her local swimming pool.
Carole, a 35-year-old Muslim convert, was told by the manager of pool in Emerainville, near Paris, that the garment was 'inappropriate' on hygiene grounds.
The woman said she bought her burkini for £40 during a holiday in Dubai, adding: 'I was told that it would allow me the pleasure of bathing without showing off my body, which is what Islam recommends.'
She is now taking her local council to court on the grounds that the ban was not a hygiene issue but a political issue.
In July, Al Qaeda terrorists vowed revenge on France if it banned the burkha.
Leaders of Al Qaeda's North African network wrote on an Islamic extremist website: 'French Muslims should react to this ban with the utmost hostility.
'We will seek dreadful revenge on France by all means at our disposal, for the honour of our daughters and sisters.'
