PARIS - Conservative Muslim women cover their hair in an array of fashions -- French members of parliament are keen to outlaw some of them.

Muslim women are not alone in concealing their hair -- ultra-Orthodox Jewish women wear headscarves and some Protestant Christian minority communities also exhort their women to cover their hair.

The following are some of the major Muslim traditions for female headgear:

HIJAB: A headscarf not a veil that is championed by Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood which are legal in some Arab countries.

BURQA: The full veil worn by conservative Muslims in countries like Afghanistan, where it is enforced by the Taliban militia fighting U.S.-led forces.

NIQAB: A veil that covers the mouth and nose but not the eyes that is advocated by some Muslim hardliners in Egypt but does not have the sanction of Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning, Cairo's Al-Azhar University.

CHADOR: The full cloak that covers the body and the hair that is traditionally worn in countries like Iran and Afghanistan but is not obligatory.