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France $laps veiled driver

PARIS — A 31-year-old French woman was fined for wearing a niqab while driving, a further sign of France’s bid to impose a so-called burqa ban and clamp down on the face-covering Islamic veil that President Nicolas Sarkozy says demeans women.

The controversy comes two days after Sarkozy backed a strict public ban of the veil, commonly referred to in France as the burqa, eschewing more moderate proposals that focused on limits in state institutions such as schools and town halls.

Polls have shown that while most French voters back a ban, experts have warned it could violate the country’s constitution.

France’s highest court has warned the government that a complete ban could be unlawful.

The unnamed woman told LCI television yesterday that police stopped her last month while she was driving in the city of Nantes, near the French Atlantic coast.

She was wearing a black niqab, which covers the face but leaves the eyes exposed. Police handed her a $29 fine, saying her clothing posed a “safety risk” to driving.

“My eyes were not covered. I can see just like you, and my field of vision was not obstructed,” said the woman, who did not give her name. She said she would appeal the decision.

The incident has now reached ministerial level.

Yesterday, the interior minister asked the immigration minister to look into revoking the French nationality of the driver’s husband after information he possessed indicated the man was a polygamist married to four women with 12 children.

“Each of these women benefit from single-parent benefits and . . . each one wears the full veil,” Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said in the letter seen by Reuters, adding he had asked local authorities to look into possible benefits fraud.

“I would appreciate it, should these factors prove true, if you could study whether this individual could be stripped of the French nationality,” Hortefeux told Immigration Minister Eric Besson.

According to the letter, the woman’s Algerian-born husband acquired French nationality in 1999.