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British public favour French-style burqa ban

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
British public favour French-style burqa ban
wo women wearing niqabs, an Islamic face covering also banned under France's so-called burqa ban. Photo: AFP

Twice as many British people support a ban on women wearing a burqa than oppose one, with a majority also in favour of outlawing the burkini, according to a poll published Thursday.

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Some 57 percent of the 1,668 adults polled by YouGov said they supported "a law that bans people from wearing the burqa in the UK", with 36 percent "strongly supporting" the ban compared with only 10 percent who were "strongly opposed".
 
France made headlines across the world in 2010 by becoming the first country in the world to ban women from from wearing full Islamic face coverings - in public places.
 
The law was dubbed the "burqa ban" although it also included the niqab - another type of full face covering, worn by some Muslim women.
   
The poll comes following a row in France about the banning of the burqini in around 30 coastal resorts in the Riviera.
   
The country's highest administrative court later suspended the ruling after it was challenged by rights groups.
   
Some 46 percent of British people would support a similar ban on the burqini, against 30 percent who were opposed, with 18 percent neither for or against.
   
Support for the ban on the burqa, worn by women in some Islamic traditions to hide the body and face, was uniform across supporters of all political parties, although strongest among Conservative and UK Independence Party backers.
   
The only demographics to oppose the ban were 18-24 year-olds -- by a margin of six percent -- and those who voted to remain in the European Union, but only by a margin of three percent.
   
The ban was also supported across the regions, with 51 percent of Londoners and 63 percent of northerners in favour.
   
A similar YouGov survey in Germany found 62 percent in support of a burqa ban, but another in the United States found that 59 percent believed "people should be allowed to decide for themselves what to wear."

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