Paris:
Rachid Nekkaz, a French businessman who lives in Parisian suburb says he is calling for a "civil disobedience" against the burqa ban. Women who want to freely wear the niqab should do so he says and he will pay their fines of 150 euro each. Nekazz says, "Thanks to the property business I own it's possible for me to raise upto 5 million euros of fines that women will be asked to pay in the streets."
Hind, a French muslim woman says she went dressed in a burqa to walk in front of the presidential palace. She was stopped by policeman she says, but they didn't fine her and let her off after a security check. She says she'll try again because she wants to send the message that this law is unjust.
These stray outbursts of mini protests have so far not evoked any response from the leaders of the muslim community who have said they regret the ban. Muslim associations in France are not keen to associate themselves with a minority of women who wear the burqa.
France's Interior Minister Claude Guéant said the ban would be fully applied, in the name of secularism and equality between men and women. "The law will respected...the police and the gendarmerie are here to apply the law and they will apply it", he said.
The burqa ban outlaws people from covering their faces in streets or in public spaces. The ban allows for leniency around religious establishments. Women are also free to wear the burqa while driving or inside their homes.