Sarkozy backs ban on burqas

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has criticized the practice of wearing the Muslim burqa.

France President Nicolas Sarkozy delivers a speech in a wing of the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris. Sarkozy said Monday that the Islamic burka is not welcome in secular France, home to Europe's largest Muslim community.(AFP/Pool/Eric Feferberg)

He insisted the full-body religious gown is a sign of the "debasement" of women and it won't be welcome in France.

Sarkozy expressed support on Monday for a call by dozens of legislators to create a parliamentary commission to study a growing trend of wearing the full-body garment in France.

In the first presidential address in 136 years to a joint session of France's two houses of parliament, Sarkozy laid out his support for a ban even before the panel has been approved.

Nicolas Sarkozy, French President, said, "In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity."

France enacted a law in 2004 banning the Islamic headscarf and other conspicuous religious symbols from public schools, sparking fierce debate at home and abroad.

France has Western Europe's largest Muslim population, an estimated five million people.