According to the Associated Press, the French Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill banning the burqa-style Islamic veil on public streets and other places, a measure that affects fewer than 2,000 women but has been widely seen as a symbolic defense of French values.
The Senate voted 246 to 1 in favor of the bill in a final step toward making the ban a law — though it now must pass muster with France's constitutional watchdog. The bill was overwhelmingly passed in July in the lower house, the National Assembly. Muslims see this as an attack on their religious expression, particularly when Islam is the second-most-popular religion in France. Proponents believe it will preserve the nation's values. Do those values include Islamophobia and religious oppression?
Read more at the Associated Press.