France yesterday enacted a law that makes it an offence for a Muslim woman to conceal her face behind a veil in public.

The law carries with it a fine of €150, while anyone caught forcing a woman to wear the veil will be liable to a much higher fine and a prison sentence of up to two years.

The garments in question are the niqab and burka, one of which hides the face of a woman completely and the other which is a full-length garment allowing only the eyes to show – they are predominantly black or light blue.

France is the first European country to implement the ban as a letter of law, with the government saying that “the face-covering veil undermines the basic standards required for living in a shared society and also relegates its wearers to an inferior status incompatible with French notions of equality.”

It seems that most people in France, including Muslims, agree – if polls and international analysis pieces are correct. On the other hand, there are those that argue that if a person wants to cover their face – whether out of custom or religious belief – thay have every right to do so, and that the ban goes against freedom of expression and is a breach of fundamental rights. There have been a small number of protests, but these have largely been attributed to libertines and islamists

And this perhaps justifies the French argument. Many agree that covering the face in European society is not acceptable. It is even more unacceptable for anyone to force someone to cover their face.

France is a fiercely secular nation, and the issues of equality, liberty and the all important fraternity are what this country is built around. Equality justifies the argument of jailing someone who forces someone else to wear the veil. Fraternity also justifies the argument that France put forward about living in a shared society.

And that leaves the all important question of freedom, and perhaps it is very much a question of perspective. There are 2,000 women who wear the burka and niqab in France – they believe they should be free to wear it. There are also 64 million other people in France, many of which believe they should be free of the suspicions and uneasiness that a full face veil covering might arouse.

Muslim women – although only very few, do decide to wear the full face veil in Malta. At face value, it seems to be a case of live and let live, although the wearer always does draw stares. It is a case of human nature – hiding one’s face in European society is perceived as untrustworthy. It is in our history to fear the mask – hence Carnival. It is also connected to crime in our mindset – a thief or a robber usually covers their face.

In the context of this piece, it must be pointed out that the majority of Europeans are Christians and the European courts recently ruled that Italy did not have to remove crucifixes from school classrooms. The trend seems to be that Europe is finally striving to preserve its identity as a European people – in terms of culture, religion and a way of life and thinking. We can only agree. However, that does not exclude us from helping the thousands of Africans who are desperately trying to escape the conflict in the Mediterranean and sub-Saharan continent. These people are in need and deserve our help.