In a report to parliament, French lawmakers have called for a partial ban on the burqa and proposed that it should be outlawed at public places including buses, schools and hospitals. If the suggestions are indeed converted into law, a woman wearing the veil could – in theory at least – be denied treatment in an emergency room or prevented from entering her children's school.

This is absurd. The west's focus on the burqa as a means to deprive women of their rights has been in evidence again and again since 2001. But this misses the whole point. The issue is of imposing any dress code on women, rather than one of the burqa alone. Denying a woman the right to wear one is as bad as forcing her into the blue garments favoured by the Taliban.

It is also a fact that the burqa does not rank as a major issue for women; many of course embrace it by choice. For others, illiteracy and lack of empowerment are often far bigger issues.French legislators seem not to realise too that their measures will exacerbate the divide that is emerging in France where a gulf already exists between the Muslim minority and mainstream society.

It will not, in any way, act to liberate Muslim women or ensure greater rights for them. What is necessary is that discrimination against Muslims be ended as a means to build a more harmonious society. France must adopt flexibility in its effort to hold on to its secular values and accept that the world we live in is a rapidly changing and increasingly multicultural one.