{"id":7557,"date":"2011-09-22T11:39:27","date_gmt":"2011-09-22T15:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=7557"},"modified":"2011-09-22T12:06:54","modified_gmt":"2011-09-22T16:06:54","slug":"7557","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/7557","title":{"rendered":"She wears the Islamic full-body veil and is running for President of France"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kenza Drider was one of the first to be arrested for\u00a0appearing in public in a traditional Muslim robe\u00a0that\u00a0covers everything but her eyes and hands &#8212;\u00a0and she&#8217;s running for president of France.<\/p>\n<p>The a mother of four wears a\u00a0<em>niqab &#8212;<\/em> which is only slightly different than a <em>burqa.\u00a0<\/em>Both are\u00a0Islamic full-body veils &#8212; and wearing them is\u00a0now\u00a0illegal\u00a0in French public places. Drider says she has worn hers for more than a decade and will keep it on as she challenges French President Nicolas Sarkozy as an independent candidate\u00a0in next year\u2019s general election.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\"Kenza Drider - champion of a Muslim woman&#039;s right to wear a face veil\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bRx6FZ7kqNg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>Her candidacy\u00a0is being\u00a0&#8220;bankrolled by a number of influential pro-Islam support groups and influential millionaires,&#8221; notes Peter Allen writing in the British newspaper the <em>Daily Mail.<\/em> &#8220;They include Rachid Nekkaz, a tycoon property developer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nekkaz paid the fines for two other women\u00a0arrested after they\u00a0defied France&#8217;s new ban. Hind Amas, 32,\u00a0was fined\u00a0120 euros (about $160), while Najate Nait Ali, 36, was fined 80 euros (about $108). Nekkaz told the press that he would help both women\u00a0finance an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.<\/p>\n<p>Both were arrested outside the town hall in the Paris suburb of Meaux on May 5 while carrying an almond cake as a gift celebrating the birthday of the local mayor, Jean-Francois Cope , writes Allen. Cope is also head of Sarkozy&#8217;s ruling UMP party and one of the architects of the ban.<\/p>\n<p>Allen\u00a0adds:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Almond sounds like &#8220;amende,&#8221; the French word for fine, and the women wanted to use the &#8220;joke&#8221; cake to highlight the absurdity of a law which they say has increased anti-Muslim feeling across France.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That\u2019s the reason I am standing for President,&#8221; said Drider, who comes from the southern city of Avignon, and who has worn the veil for the past 13 years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The\u00a0arrests are being watched closely across Europe. Belgium has also banned the\u00a0veil in public places. Italy is considering reviving a 1975 law against face coverings. Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland are planning similar laws. In Belgium, defiance is punishable by a fine and a week in prison. French authorities say 91 women have been stopped for wearing burqas in public since the ban was introduced.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-2040494\/Burka-ban-defier-Kenza-Drider-run-Nicolas-Sarkozy-President-France.html#ixzz1Yh9TrTsD\" target=\"_blank\">CLICK HERE to read more\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kenza Drider was one of the first to be arrested for\u00a0appearing in public in a traditional Muslim robe\u00a0that\u00a0covers everything but her eyes and hands &#8212;\u00a0and she&#8217;s running for president of France. The a mother of four wears a\u00a0niqab &#8212; which is only slightly different than a burqa.\u00a0Both are\u00a0Islamic full-body veils &#8212; and wearing them is\u00a0now\u00a0illegal\u00a0in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[1612,357,2208,362,1611],"class_list":["post-7557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islam","tag-burqa-ban","tag-france","tag-islam","tag-kenza-drider","tag-rachid-nekkaz"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>She wears the Islamic full-body veil and is running for President of France<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/7557\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"She wears the Islamic full-body veil and is running for President of France\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kenza Drider was one of the first to be arrested for\u00a0appearing in public in a traditional Muslim robe\u00a0that\u00a0covers everything but her eyes and hands &#8212;\u00a0and she&#8217;s running for president of France. The a mother of four wears a\u00a0niqab &#8212; which is only slightly different than a burqa.\u00a0Both are\u00a0Islamic full-body veils &#8212; and wearing them is\u00a0now\u00a0illegal\u00a0in&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/7557\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-22T15:39:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-09-22T16:06:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"She wears the Islamic full-body veil and is running for President of France","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/7557","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"She wears the Islamic full-body veil and is running for President of France","og_description":"Kenza Drider was one of the first to be arrested for\u00a0appearing in public in a traditional Muslim robe\u00a0that\u00a0covers everything but her eyes and hands &#8212;\u00a0and she&#8217;s running for president of France. The a mother of four wears a\u00a0niqab &#8212; which is only slightly different than a burqa.\u00a0Both are\u00a0Islamic full-body veils &#8212; and wearing them is\u00a0now\u00a0illegal\u00a0in&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/7557","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2011-09-22T15:39:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-09-22T16:06:54+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/7557","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/7557","name":"She wears the Islamic full-body veil and is running for President of France","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-09-22T15:39:27+00:00","dateModified":"2011-09-22T16:06:54+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/7557#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/7557"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/7557#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"She wears the Islamic full-body veil and is running for President of France"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7557"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7560,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7557\/revisions\/7560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}