France is unlikely to impose a total ban on Muslim veils but may bar them from public buildings, it emerged today.
A parliamentary panel is due to report tomorrow after a six-month inquiry that began after President Nicolas Sarkozy said veils were "not welcome".
Its head Communist MP Andre Gerin said today the report has a "multitude of proposals" to ban the veil in places like schools, hospitals and other public buildings, but not private buildings or on the street.
He stressed the need to move "progressively" towards a total ban and to work "hand in hand" with Muslim leaders and associations.
A 2004 French law bans Muslim headscarves from classrooms.
Muslim leaders have warned that a law banning veils in the streets could stigmatise Muslims and drive some to extremism.
They were joined last week by Roman Catholic and Jewish leaders who said they consider such a drastic step
unnecessary.
France has Western Europe's largest Muslim population, estimated at five million. Only a tiny minority of Muslim women wear veils, usually a "niqab" pinned across the face to cover all but the eyes.
Critics call them a gateway to extremism, an insult to gender equality and an offence to France's secular system.
"It is perhaps a marginal problem, but it is the visible part of the iceberg," Mr Gerin said in a recent interview. "Behind the iceberg is a black tide of ... fundamentalism." He denounced those he called "gurus" or "French Taliban" who, he claimed, promote a radical brand of Islam that forces women and girls to hide themselves.
AP