This House believes France is right to ban the face veil
Monday October 11 2010
MOTION REJECTED
by 22% to 78%
Speakers
Jacques Myard
Speaking for the motion
Jacques Myard is a member of the ruling conservative UMP coalition in the French national assembly. He is Mayor of Maisons-Laffitte, on the outskirts of Paris, and a member of the French Foreign Affairs Committee. Mr. Myard was the co-chair of the cross-party parliamentary committee set up to investigate the prevalence of the full face veil in France. The committee's recommendations resulted in France passing a law to ban the face veil in public.
Nabila Ramdani
Speaking against the motion
Nabila Ramdani is a journalist and commentator who specialises in Anglo-French issues, Islamic affairs, and the Arab World. She is a columnist for The Guardian in the UK, and has worked with a variety of publications in France and the Middle East including Le Figaro, The National and Gulf News. She has held teaching positions at Oxford University, and Paris 7 University and earlier this year was nominated for the inaugural European Muslim Women of Influence Award.
Farzana Hassan
Speaking for the motion
Farzana Hassan is a writer and women's rights activist. She has authored a number of articles and books examining the Islamic faith in modern society including ‘Islam,Women and the Challenges of Today' and ‘Prophecy and the Fundamentalist Quest'. Farzana Hassan is a member and former president of The Muslim Canadian Congress. Founded in December 2001 in the wake of 9/11, the MCC believes in the separation of religion and state and is calling for the Canadian government to introduce a ban on the face veil in public.
Mehdi Hasan
Speaking against the motion
Mehdi Hasan is the Senior Political Editor of the UK publication, the NewStatesman. He was formerly a news and current affairs editor at Channel 4 in the UK and at 29 was the station's youngest commissioning editor. He commissioned the film , ‘It Shouldn't Happen to a Muslim' for the channel's investigative journalism strand, Dispatches, which addressed the issue of rising Islamophobia since 7/7. He makes frequent appearances on the BBC debate programmes, The Big Questions and Question Time.
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