I can understand banning garments that conceal a person's identity for security reasons, but not for religious ones.

The Orthodox Jewish women that I saw in Jerusalem wear both wigs AND headscarves, and while they don't necessarily wear black, I've never been very impressed with their fashion sense. The ultra-Orthodox men, however, did wear all-black in the searing Israeli summer sun... and yet, no one says that they're "oppressed" or whatever. Nutty, perhaps. But it never bothered me to see these "frum"ies, even though I had not the slightest desire to join their ranks.

It's rather amusing to hear Western men and women speaking of Saudi women as oppressed, and then they step right in there and start telling these same women what to do - because they're obviously too dumb to know what's best for them.

The issues you mention with radical Islam are very real, and France has a different racial and ethnic legacy than the U.S. - but legislating religious observance and attire, I dunno.

And what if a secular person goes to a costume party dressed from head to toe in a Snoopy costume? What about masked balls? Carnivale? Will they be banned?

If we must ban all face-concealing attire in public, then by Gum let's ban them all!

- r