President Nicolas Sarkozy has condemned the head-to-toe cover as a symbol of subjugation rather than the Muslim faith.

While addressing the lawmakers in a major plicy speech, he said:

We cannot accept to have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity. That is not the idea that the French republic has of women’s dignity. The burka is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience. It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic.

Sarkozy told a special session of parliament he was in favour of holding an inquiry sought by some French lawmakers into whether Muslim women who cover themselves fully in public undermine French secularism and women’s rights. But the president added “we must not fight the wrong battle, in the republic the Muslim religion must be respected as much as other religions.”

The inquiry proposal has won support from politicians on the left and right, but France’s official Muslim council accused lawmakers of wasting time on a fringe phenomenon.  The head of the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM), Mohammed Moussaoui, said:

To raise the subject like this, via a parliamentary committee, is a way of stigmatising Islam and the Muslims of France.

If women cover themselves that is not a sign of dignity, however, if they don’t wear any clothes at all that is sign of dignity of French secular society. I beleive that moderation on both side is the answer to this problem. Muslims who beleive that not covering themselves head-to-toe in burka is against relegion then they have the option to go to the countries where they can practice this cultural tradition. At the same time I would expect from the French president to not make this minor matter an issue of national interest.