Excerpt:
France will take the first step towards barring Muslim women from wearing the full veil on Tuesday when a parliamentary panel will recommend banning the face-covering in public locations.
The proposal, which calls for a ban of the veils in hospitals and schools, falls short of an outright ban after critics argued that such a move would be divisive and possibly unconstitutional in a country where Islam is the second-largest religion.
The panel's report, to be released on Tuesday, is the culmination of a six-month inquiry into why a tiny minority of Muslim women wear such veils and the implications for France.