I. M. MOKHOVA Candidate of Political Sciences islam Keywords:, France, burka, identity clothing that completely hides the person's face. The main goal of the authors of the law is to ban Muslim women's clothing that covers a woman from head to toe (including the face), which in France is called a burka *1In September 2010, a law was passed in France, which introduces a ban on wearing in all public places. Data on the number of women wearing the burka, or burqa, in France vary. The General Information Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs puts the figure at 2,000 women, and according to the Police Department, which also collects information within the country, there are only 367 such women. 2 The last figure is most likely underestimated and does not reflect the real situation. According to the mayor of one of the suburbs of Lyon, women in completely concealing clothing are significantly more numerous in the market alone in the Lyon suburb. On the other hand, even if there are about 2,000 burqa-wearers, the adopted law will affect extremely small social groups. The initiators of the law are the government and the parliamentary majority led by the right-wing Union for a Popular Movement (SNM)party3. With the coming to power of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, who, in his own words, was elected to "protect national identity" 4, the controversy about rethinking French identity and the criteria of belonging to the nation became the center of public and political discussions. In this regard, the right wing of the political elite raised the issue of compatibility of wearing a burka in public places with a number of fundamental principles of the French Republic - the secular nature of the state, equality between men and women and the protection of human dignity. According to a public opinion poll conducted in early 2010 by the IPSOS survey service, more than half of French citizens (57%) supported the adoption of a law prohibiting the wearing of the burka5 Among supporters of ... Читать далее