At President Sarkozy’s request, the French parliament has established a bipartisan panel to study ways of restricting the burqa in French society, including an outright ban on wearing it in public. Calling the garment “a sign of subservience [and] debasement” for women, Sarkozy boldly declared that the burqa “is not welcome in France.”
Host to Europe’s largest Muslim population—about 5 million people—French society has long debated whether the garment is an affront to women's rights and to the nation’s hard-won secular tradition. Although it’s been outlawed in schools and other public buildings since 2004, Muslims in France are increasingly adopting the trend. So the rest of world is watching the escalating debate with keen interest, and many western nations are asking the same questions as France.

