Few burqas, much fuss

According to a survey commissioned by the Danish government last summer and conducted by the university of Copenhagen, the Danish population includes approximately 200 women who wear the niqab, and only three who wear full burqas. However, notwithstanding these relatively low numbers, Jyllands-Postennotes that the government still does not know how to respond to the report's findings. In particular, it has yet to choose between introducing a law that would ban the wearing of a full veil, or an adjustment to the penal code that would make it an offence to force people to wear certain types of garments including burqas. The daily also reports that the extreme-right Danish People's Party, led by Pia Kjærsgaard, and the Liberal Alliance (two opposition parties that support the government's position) have criticized the methods used by the authors of the report, who collected data from imams (including a number of extremists). The wearing of full veils is also a political issue in France, where a survey published by Le Figaroindicates that 57% of the population is in favour of "a law to ban the wearing of burqas" in the country.