Around the World: France

Plan targets public veils

A parliamentary panel that wants Muslim women to stop veiling their faces recommended yesterday that France ban such veils in public facilities, including hospitals and mass transit, and refuse residence cards and citizenship to anyone with visible signs of a "radical religious practice."

The nearly 200-page report contains many measures intended to dissuade women from wearing all-enveloping veils in France. However, there is no call to outlaw such garments - worn by a tiny minority of Muslims - in private areas and in the street.