UK - Christianity declining, Atheism rising, but so is Islam...

[Ben Davis]

As far as I'm aware, the French government didn't ban the Burkha in particular. It banned all forms of full body coverings that prevent facial recognition.

Indeed, and that's even worse! But to focus for a moment, the original draft of the legislation was aimed at niqab, burkha and hijab, specifically. The rewording, to get the bill passed, occurred once proposers realised that it would fall at the International Court of Human Rights and it uses a legal loophole for a misguided purpose. Let's not be under any pretense here, the original target was 'muslims' and however noble the intentions, it's an instruction to muslim women on what they can wear.

The same applies to wearing a helmet... you can wear it while riding the bike, in fact, you must wear it for your own safety... but when not riding the bike, it is forbidden, you must remove it. And yet, I don't see anyone batting an eye over this prohibition... if I want to wear a helmet in the office, why shouldn't I be able to? Or wear a helmet in a bank. or wear a helmet in a grocery shop... Why can't I?

Okay, on to the broader point: there are circumstances where security concerns require that facial recognition is required, that I recognise and I applaud efforts to protect people from harm, when protection is warranted. 'Just being out and about in the general public' is not one of those circumstances. I can think of many occasions where I've been glad of full facial coverings (e.g. hoods, scarves, balaclavas) for safety and comfort reasons; I can think of many more, that other people may want to wear such clothing. None of them are harmful or lead to harmful consequences thus it's an infringement of human rights to impose legislation on such garments in those circumstances. Knowing that the legislation was created with muslims as targets, the fact that all French citizens are negatively impacted by it does no good to the arguments in favour of it. For example, one has the right to protect one's identity (i.e. wear facial coverings) when exercising one's right to peaceful protest; but not in France! The legislation is wrong and based on an erroneous & manufactured fear of 'muslims'; it should be overturned by the UN and the proposers held accountable in front of a ICHR tribunal.

My religion of Saint Poca demands that I wear a helmet every waking minute of my life! Why can't I wear it in most developed countries in the world?
[disclaimer] The religion of saint Poca is now admitting new members - we promise a headache-free life at the expense of wearing a helmet all day long. You may only remove the helmet for washing and sleeping.

You can, in most of the world, most of the time. But not in France! Plus, if the helmets could actually be demonstrated to prevent headaches, you'd have a decent argument, just like 'keeping the rain out of your face' is a decent reason to wear a hood or face-scarf, in spite of what French legislation says.