The heaviest penalties under the new legislation, though, are reserved for those who encourage a woman to conceal their faces. It is believed many of the estimated 2,000 Muslim women in France who cover their faces do so under pressure from Salafist fundamentalists, who are most often their husbands, fathers or brothers. A Moroccan woman, for example, who never wore a burqa in her native country, was refused French citizenship in 2008 after donning one in France at the behest of her fundamentalist husband.

Mainstream Muslim groups in France have supported the Sarkozy government in its quest to eliminate the burqa and niqab from public areas. They have declared concealing the face “was not a prescription of the Koran” and said they will engage in “theological discussions” with Muslim women who wear the veil. These organisations were opposed, however, to passing any law forbidding facial coverings.

“This would cause a feeling of injustice to arise, even among the Muslims hostile to the full covering,” said Mohammad Mouassi, president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith .

The Muslims in France most hostile to the new law are the Salafists, a fundamentalist stream similar to the Wahhabis. They regard France’s mainstream Muslim leaders as “ignorant”, even “infidels.” The Salafists only number, it is estimated, between 30,000 and 50,000 of France’s five million Muslims but say they are ready to defy the new law. Provocations staged by Salafistes involving veil-wearing women are almost a certainty.

Unsurprisingly, Al Qaeda’s North African affiliate, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, had already threatened retaliation if the law was passed. The first indication of possible trouble from that direction occurred the evening of the vote when the area around the Eiffel Tower and the Saint Michel subway station had to be evacuated due to a false bomb threat.

In the face of the fundamentalists’ hostility, enforcing the new law could represent a major problem. French police are wary of enforcement in the violence-wracked and crime-ridden Muslim suburbs surrounding French cities where serious anti-government riots have taken place and where existing tensions are easily inflamed. Arresting and fining veiled Muslim women will be a delicate operation that may contain hidden dangers. French officials believe, however, that since the banning of religious symbols in schools in 2004, including the Muslim head scarf, did not cause any major social difficulties, enforcement of the face covering ban should also occur smoothly.