As France signs off burka ban, meet the Niqabitches

Last night, France’s highest legal authority, the Conseil
Consitutionnel, signed off a proposed law which will make wearing the burka in public illegal. It was the final legal hurdle for the new statute, which will now take effect in about six months.

The law has caused intense debate in fiercely-secular France, with opponents on both sides claiming the republic’s tradition of liberty is at stake. Now perhaps the most attention grabbing protest has surfaced on the internet: the Niqabitches.

Two female students have posted a two-minute video in which they wander the streets of Paris, each wearing the still-legal niqab, the traditional middle-eastern face-covering. From the waste down, however, they’re distinctly western, clad in miniskirts and high heels.

The cameraman captures the shocked – and frequently titillated – reaction of passers-by to this unusual protest. Scooters come to a halt, heads turn – and tourists take photographs.

At one point, the pair try to enter the immigration ministry and are turned back by police guarding the door. A policewoman tells the protesters she loves their outfits and asks if she can take a photograph.

The two women are quite clear that they oppose the ban, which while it does not refer specifically to Islamic or middle-eastern modes of dress, prohibits the wearing of any face covering in public.

They told the Guardian: "We were not looking to attack or degrade the image of Muslim fundamentalists – each to their own – but rather to question politicians who voted for this law that we consider clearly unconstitutional. To dictate what we wear appears to have become the role of the state." ·