(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Nicolas Lerner, chief of staff for the Paris police chief said fifty-nine people were detained while trying to demonstrate at Place de la Nation in eastern Paris, as were two others while traveling there from Britain and Belgium.
The arrests come amid a rising groundswell of controversy over Monday's start of an official ban of garments that hide the face, which includes Muslim veils such as the slit-eyed niqab and the full face-covering burqa. Women who disobey the law risk a fine, special classes, and a police record.
The demonstrators rallied in defiance of a ban of the protest ordered Friday by Paris police.
The measure forbids women to hide their faces in public places, even in the streets. France's Muslims number at least 5 million, the largest such population in western Europe.
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