Driving While Veiled - Updated

(Nantes, France) According to information from the French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux, the woman charged and fined for driving while veiled and her husband have been identified.

It was revealed last Friday that Anne, 31, a French woman converted to Islam, had been given an instant €22 (£19) fine earlier this month for driving in Nantes, in western France, while wearing a face veil, or niqab, which left only her eyes exposed. National debate on the incident dwelled initially on the exaggerated "burqaphobia" generated by the Government's plan to ban the full-length veil from all public places.

The media spotlight instantly switched over the weekend to Anne's husband, Lies Hebbadj, 35, an Algerian-born butcher and taxi operator, said to be living in three bungalows near Nantes with his 12 children and four or maybe three, fully-veiled women.

In a letter to the immigration minister, which was released to the press, Mr Hortefeux said that "according to information at my disposal", Mr Hebbadj belonged to a radical Islamist group called Tabligh. The minister said that Mr Hebbadj was "thought to be living in a polygamous situation with four women". Each woman was "believed to be" claiming benefit as a single mother.

Mr Hortefeux said that he had asked for an investigation into "possible polygamy and social security fraud". He urged the immigration minister to consider action to revoke Mr Hebbadj's French nationality (acquired when he married Anne in 1999).

The issue is becoming car-burning hot in France. Watch where you park.

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Driving While Veiled Leads to Deportation Threat
[Previous 4/26/10 post]
(Nantes, France) A French woman received a citation and a fine for driving while wearing an Islamic veil which she immediately challenged as being a violation of her human rights.

In response, French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux took action to punish the woman's husband for offenses.

Hortefeux had written to Immigration Minister Eric Besson asking him to look into allegations the woman’s husband may belong to a radical group and may be a polygamist with four wives and 12 children and guilty of welfare fraud.

He said the man could be stripped of his French nationality if they proved true. […]

French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen told local media it was “scandalous” that the man’s alleged wives were receiving family benefits and said the potential stripping of the man’s French citizenship was “normal”.

But on the veil ban, Le Pen said the issue was “covering up more serious problems” and there was “no need for a law”.

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government said last week it would push ahead with a ban on wearing a full-face veil in public, despite a warning from state legal experts that such a law could be unconstitutional.

In this context, the Nantes incident gained political momentum and dominated the news this weekend.

Remember, this all started with a woman driving while wearing a veil. The speedy escalation to more substantive issues related to Islam is telling. Watch where you park. The youths will likely be burning even more cars.