French President Nicolas Sarkozy told French parliamentarians today that the burka was not welcome in secular France. The French leader said the Islamic all-encompassing garment was a symbol of the  subjugation of women.

President Sarkozy told MPs, "We cannot accept to have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity. That is not the idea that the French Republic has of women's dignity." He emphasised that his view was not against Islam, saying, "In the republic the Muslim religion must be respected as much as other religions. "

France has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. President Sarkozy said he is in favour of an inquiry into whether the burka undermines French secularism and women's rights. In 2004, the debate over the wearing of headscarves by schoolgirls led to a law banning all religious symbols in French schools. French civil servants are also banned from wearing any outward sign of their religious beliefs.