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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Sarkozy speaks out against burka | Sarkozy speaks out against burka |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| French President Nicolas Sarkozy has spoken out strongly against the wearing of the burka by Muslim women in France. | French President Nicolas Sarkozy has spoken out strongly against the wearing of the burka by Muslim women in France. |
| In a major policy speech, he said the burka - a garment covering women from head to toe - reduced them to servitude and undermined their dignity. | In a major policy speech, he said the burka - a garment covering women from head to toe - reduced them to servitude and undermined their dignity. |
| Mr Sarkozy also gave his backing to the establishment of a parliamentary commission to look at whether to ban the wearing of burkas in public. | Mr Sarkozy also gave his backing to the establishment of a parliamentary commission to look at whether to ban the wearing of burkas in public. |
| Wearing of the veil is already outlawed in France's state schools. | Wearing of the veil is already outlawed in France's state schools. |
| "We cannot accept to have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity," Mr Sarkozy told a special session of parliament in Versailles. | |
| "That is not the idea that the French republic has of women's dignity. | |
| "The burka is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience. It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic," the French president said. | |
| But he stressed that France "must not fight the wrong battle, saying that "the Muslim religion must be respected as much as other religions" in the country. | |
| A group of a cross-party lawmakers are already calling for a special inquiry into whether Muslim women who wear the burka are undermining French secularism, the BBC's Emma Jane Kirby in Paris says. | |
| They also want to examine whether women who wear the veil are doing so voluntarily or are being forced to cover themselves, our correspondent says. | |
| Mr Sarkozy's speech, made possible by a constitutional | |
| amendment he introduced last year, was the first that a French president has made to parliament since the 19th century. |