Excerpt:
A French businessman has set up a fund to pay fines for women who wear Islamic veils or the burqa in public "in whatever country in the world that bans women from doing so".
Rachid Nekkaz, 38, a real-estate businessman based in Paris, travelled to Belgium on Wednesday to pay 100 euros for two women fined in the first case in the country since the law was adopted there.
"I'm in favour of a law to convict a husband who forces a women to wear the niqab and who forces her to stay at home. But I'm also for a law that lets these women move freely in the streets, because freedom of movement, just like any freedom, is the most fundamental thing in a democracy, " Nekkaz told reporters outside the courtroom in Belgium.