PRIME MINISTER François Fillon has said he will sign a decree refusing French citizenship to a man who forced his wife to wear the full Islamic veil.
The decree was issued by minister for immigration Éric Besson, who said an investigation into the foreigner’s application for naturalisation had shown he was making his French wife wear the veil.
“It’s French law,” Mr Fillon said. “The civil code has for a very long time provided that naturalisation could be refused to someone who does not respect the values of the republic.”
Although Mr Fillon is obliged to consult with the council of state before endorsing the decree, he said it was his intention to sign it, arguing – as President Nicolas Sarkozy has done – that the full veil “has no place in our country”.
The announcement came just a week after a parliamentary commission called for a law to ban the wearing of face-covering veils such as the burka and niqab in government offices and public transport.
Mr Besson said the man, whose nationality has not been revealed, needed citizenship to settle in the country with his French wife. However, his application was being refused because he would not allow his wife to leave home with her face uncovered.
“It became apparent during the investigation and the prior interview that this person was compelling his wife to wear the all-covering veil, depriving her of the freedom to come and go with her face uncovered, and rejected the principles of secularism and equality between men and women,” he said in a statement.
Two years ago, a French court denied citizenship to a veiled Moroccan woman on the grounds that her “radical” practice of Islam was not compatible with French values.
With the debate over Islamic dress continuing to exercise politicians in the run-up to regional elections next month, the radical New Anticapitalist Party yesterday confirmed that it was putting forward a candidate who wears a headscarf but said this did not affect its militant secularism.
The party, led by the Trotskyist postman Olivier Besancenot, said the woman was “a militant feminist . . . who believes she must wear the veil in accordance with her religions convictions”.