mistresses are not forbidden, neither in France, nor in Islam.”
He did not specify whether he lives under the same roof with the various women in his life, although press reports have quoted neighbors as saying he moves between several houses. Hebbadj, whose robed image has been flashed around France by TV, runs a recently opened halal butcher shop.
The revelation last week that a police officer cited the woman, whose name has not been revealed, for driving while wearing a niqab, which reveals only the eyes, provided a taste of what is in store.
A French bill that would outlaw the veils in all public places will be introduced in May, despite a ruling by France’s highest administrative body that it risks being found unconstitutional.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon met Monday with Muslim leaders and the justice minister Monday to lay the groundwork for an eventual law.
Belgium also plans a full ban on Islamic garments that cover the face and was expected to be the first EU country to institute one, until the collapse last week of the Belgian government. That legislation is on hold.
Sarkozy, who has striven to revive what he says is a loss of basic French values, is sinking in polls and his conservative party was trounced in March regional elections. Some Socialist rivals suggested the arrest of the veiled driver with a suspect husband was a setup.
A Socialist Party spokesman accused Sarkozy of playing to the anti-immigration far-right.
“The government decided … to continue its strategy of stigmatizing” Muslims and has become “the best ally of Islamic extremists in France,” Benoit Hamon said Monday. “A banal police citation has been transformed into an affair of state.”
France’s Muslim leaders have consistently said the veil debate is stigmatizing Muslims.
The question of banning face-covering veils was first broached last June when Sarkozy told parliament that such garments are “not welcome” in France, a message he repeated last month.
The issue blossomed into a major debate, recalling the enmity dividing politicians and citizens before France outlawed Muslim headscarves and other “ostentatious” religious symbols from classrooms in 2004.
The Interior Ministry estimates no more than 1,900 Muslim women wear attire that hides the face.
There are no official numbers on the number of polygamous families in France, most of which are from sub-Saharan Africa, but they are estimated in the tens of thousands.
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