France is likely to come in for much outside criticism for its burqa ban.
The opposition Socialist Party opposes the burqa but frets that outlawing it may be counterproductive.
For six months, a cross-party parliamentary inquiry has been holding hearings about the burqa.
Ms Verdonk insisted the burqa was not an acceptable part of public life in the Netherlands.
And she added that in some cases, the burqa actually helps her to do her job.
Afghanistan is the only country where women wear the burqa in any great numbers.
The burqa, Noorjehan says, was part of the problem when she went to work in the relief camp.
The nationalist Convergence and Union coalition wants a burqa ban and to make future immigrants take Catalan-language tests.
Socialist mayors from Barcelona to Lleida want to ban the burqa, even though the courts say they cannot.
Every one of them, some completely covered by their burqa, would run away, afraid to appear on camera.
Others worry that women, who are often under domestic pressure to wear the burqa, would be unfairly punished.
Under the 2004 law, the burqa is already banned in public schools, as it is on identity cards.
Last year, France's top court denied a Moroccan woman's naturalization request on the grounds that she wore a burqa.
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France is not the only European Union country to consider banning the burqa.
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But I'm not putting on a burqa, not because anyone tells me to.
So thousands of women had to be employed to search burqa-clad female voters.
Merah also was opposed to France's recent move to ban women from wearing a full veil, or burqa, Molins said.
So do religious conservatives, who commonly apply the burqa as a statement of power, a tool to demonstrate their presence.
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When women did leave their homes, they were required to wear a blue burqa, which covered their bodies from head to toe.
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In the rest of the Middle East, most women don a veil of one kind or another, though almost none wears the burqa.
"September affected not only my life but that of all of the women of Afghanistan, " said Suhaila Sashina, from beneath her bright, blue burqa.
She says she was too poor to purchase a real burqa.
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The planned burqa ban would forbid the covering of the face even in the street, but not the wearing of an all-over veil that leaves the face exposed.
"The Cabinet finds it undesirable that face-covering clothing - including the burqa - is worn in public places for reasons of public order, security and protection of citizens, " she said.
Many may argue that his analysis was flawed, but many in the West also bought it -- witness Britain's participation in Iraq and Afghanistan and France's ban on the Burqa.
And this is the reason why the wearing of the burqa has become a necessity, more to preserve women from malicious eyes than to spare men the temptations of infinite allurements.
Six months after September 11, just a few are starting to hold jobs or go to school, and some occasionally venture out with a scarf or veil instead of a burqa.
Since then, between banlieue riots and talk of burqa bans, France has struggled to integrate its minorities. (Of the 23-man Algerian squad, 17 are French-born.) The team seems to reflect these tensions, with rumours of tribal divisions.
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Six months ago a Westerner couldn't have even come here, a woman couldn't go out without a burqa, and in any case you would need the permission of officials and be accompanied by a guard and two others.
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