A ban on full face veils has come into force in France, exposing Muslim women who wear the niqab or burka in public to fines of £132 (150 euros). The country's five-million-strong Muslim minority is western Europe's largest, but fewer than 2,000 women are believed to wear a full face veil.
Many Muslim leaders have said they support neither the veil nor the law banning it.
French police arrested 59 people on Saturday who turned up for a banned protest over the veil ban, one of them on arrival in France from Britain, according to a police spokesman.
The timing of the onset of the ban is all the more sensitive after France's ruling political party, President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP, called a debate on the place of Islam in France.
That is move some say risked stigmatising a portion of the population.
Police received a guide last week to help implement the ban. It tells them not to remove veils by force and also notes the ban does not apply inside private cars. Read More
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