Muslims Ask For Ban On Burqa And Niqab In Canada

From CTV News:

The Muslim Canadian Congress called on the federal government to prohibit the two garments in order to prevent women from covering their faces in public -- a practice the group said has no place in a society that supports gender equality. "To cover your face is to conceal your identity," congress spokeswoman Farzana Hassan said.

There is nothing in any of the primary Islamic religious texts, including the Qur'an, that requires women to cover their faces, she said -- not even in the controversial, ultra-conservative tenets of Sharia law. Considering the fact that women are in fact forbidden from wearing burqas in the grand mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest site, it hardly makes sense that the practice should be permitted in Canada, she said.

 France has also proposed banning the burqa. More here and here.