French police fine woman for driving while wearing burqa
Discussion
A Muslim woman in France has been fined for driving a car wearing burqa because the full-face covering ‘reduced her field of vision’.
Police compared wearing a veil over the face behind the wheel to driving with ice on the windscreen, eating a sandwich or smoking a cigarette.
The woman was fined 28 pounds for violating a law that states ‘field of vision must not be restricted by either passengers, objects being transported or by the position of non-transparent objects on the windows,’ The Daily Mail reports.
According to the report, the police stopped the woman because she was driving hesitantly and clearly could not see properly.
“Looking out through a narrow slit in the fabric is as dangerous as driving while eating a sandwich, smoking or with an iced-up windscreen,” police said.
The woman was told she violated the country’s controversial burqa ban imposed last April, which outlawed anyone hiding their face in public, including in streets, shops, restaurants and cars on public roads.
From here
Police compared wearing a veil over the face behind the wheel to driving with ice on the windscreen, eating a sandwich or smoking a cigarette.
The woman was fined 28 pounds for violating a law that states ‘field of vision must not be restricted by either passengers, objects being transported or by the position of non-transparent objects on the windows,’ The Daily Mail reports.
According to the report, the police stopped the woman because she was driving hesitantly and clearly could not see properly.
“Looking out through a narrow slit in the fabric is as dangerous as driving while eating a sandwich, smoking or with an iced-up windscreen,” police said.
The woman was told she violated the country’s controversial burqa ban imposed last April, which outlawed anyone hiding their face in public, including in streets, shops, restaurants and cars on public roads.
From here
Encouraging that the nonsensical idea of special dispensation for the religious is being challenged, even if it's not in our country - yet. What's depressing, however, is that it's clearly so rare that this one instance warrants a big story. If a person was driving in fancy dress, or wearing shades in a car with blacked-out windows, or a car covered in snow, it wouldn't even warrant a mention because obviously the driver would deserve a fine. But because the ninja postbox garb is decreed by the magic sky psycho (actually, by a bunch of peasants who made up some stories about a bloke who thought he was talking to a supernatural being who knew the magic sky psycho) it still creates controversy when people suggest it has no place in civilised society.
Glassman said:
“Looking out through a narrow slit in the fabric is as dangerous as driving while eating a sandwich, smoking or with an iced-up windscreen,” police said.
So not very dangerous then - Or does the smoke fill up the car to the point where you can't see out? Is smoking while driving illegal in France?Silver Smudger said:
Glassman said:
“Looking out through a narrow slit in the fabric is as dangerous as driving while eating a sandwich, smoking or with an iced-up windscreen,” police said.
So not very dangerous then - Or does the smoke fill up the car to the point where you can't see out? Is smoking while driving illegal in France?
BOR said:
How is the narrow slit in a burqa worse than the narrow slit in the balaclava I wear when riding my motorcycle ?
AFAIK there is no narrow slit on a burqa. It's effectively a mesh...a bit like the net curtains you have that allow light in and feint visibility, but don't provide very good clarity. Especially not good enough for driving!Unsure of this pictures reliability, but I was made aware (only recently) there is a distinct difference between the veils.
P.s. has anyone ever got smoke in the eye? I used to drive and smoke and the lighting and extinguishing proceedure is difficult enough IMO.
Edited by SpeedMattersNot on Monday 2nd January 16:16
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