PARIS, May 2, (Agencies): The burqa, or face-covering veil, is getting all the attention in the debate over Muslim immigrants in France. But another controversial tradition among some immigrants is less noticed and far more widespread: Polygamy.
The issue resurfaced last week after a woman received a traffic citation in the western city of Nantes for driving with a veil over her face. Officials then accused her husband of having at least three other wives, and said he may be profiting from them financially while the state pays the bill. Polygamy is one of several issues, like forced marriage or genital mutilation, that France and other European nations face, as immigrants arrive with customs that conflict with the law of the land. But experts say polygamy in France can also be linked to fraud, where husbands hijack a generous social welfare system to line their pockets with state funds from each of their wives.

Situations
“They practice polygamy just for that,” said Jean-Marie Ballo, founder of an association that helps women escape from polygamous situations, Nouveaux Pas, or New Steps. “I’d go so far as to say that polygamists here (in France) are breeding for cash.” Ballo said he’s even aware of cases where a legal wife’s papers are used for hospital care for a second — a health risk as medical records intermingle.
It’s hard to count how many polygamous families live in France because of the secrecy of the practice. But the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights in a 2006 report made a minimal estimate of 16,000 to 20,000 polygamous families in France, or some 180,000 people, including children. That compares to fewer than 2,000 women who are thought to wear burqa-style garments.

For decades, polygamy was legal in France for immigrants arriving from any of about 50 countries where it is legally recognized. Historically, taking numerous wives was either a social and economic necessity in poor countries with high death rates, or a sign of external wealth or male domination.
France banned polygamy in 1993. At the same time, it launched a process of “decohabitation” to help multiple wives trapped in small apartments with numerous children to move into their own homes. Experts say that system has been largely successful. But abuses thrive. Especially vulnerable are women who arrived in France after 1993 — often here illegally and, therefore, with limited means to extricate themselves.
The state “minimally resolved the problem of polygamy but didn’t provide the means to resolve it completely,” said Catherine Quentier of the association Rajfire, which helps women in distress negotiate French red tape to gain legal status or state-funded housing.
It’s hard to interview women who live in polygamy because associations say the current sensitive climate has aggravated their daily fears of being caught or their sense of shame. But the human rights report recounts a story that shows how multiple wives and children can lose their own identities.

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PARIS: Governments worldwide will probably point a disapproving finger at France for banning the full Islamic veil, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Sunday. President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government is drafting a bill that would make it illegal to wear the face-covering veil, making France the second European country after Belgium to move toward a ban of the garment, known as the burqa.
“There will of course be European countries that will protest,” Kouchner told Europe 1 radio, citing Denmark and the Netherlands who see the ban as an infringement on religious freedoms.
“The United States are keen to defend religious freedom and there will be many NGOs and foundations that will want to show that we are mistaken,” he added.
Kouchner also singled out Pakistan and Turkey as countries “where we will be criticised” and noted that Saudi Arabia will seize on the legislation to justify its repressive laws against women.

BERLIN: A senior German member of the European parliament and ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel called Sunday for all of Europe to follow Belgium’s lead and ban the full Islamic veil or burqa in public.
“I wish that Germany — and all of Europe — would also outlaw the wearing of the burqa in all its forms,” said Silvana Koch-Mehrin, European parliament vice-president and a member of Germany’s Free Democrats (FDP), Merkel’s junior coalition partners since elections in 2009.
“The burqa is a massive attack on women’s rights, it is a mobile prison,” she said in an op-ed piece in the mass-circulation German newspaper Bild am Sonntag.
Belgian MPs in the lower house of parliament last week voted overwhelmingly in favour of a bill banning clothes or veils that do not allow the wearer to be fully identified, including the full-face niqab and burqa.
All governing parties and the opposition agreed on the move — most for security reasons linked to the fact that people cannot be recognised while wearing the clothing.