Today’s Daily Mail features a tongue-in-cheek story about a Republican Guard fainting at the mere sight of Carla Bruni Sarkozy. Indeed, the First Lady of France looked marvelous last night, at an official dinner for Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Al Thani of Qatar and his wife Mozah bint Nasser Al-Missned.

I can’t help noting the timing of the dinner with President Sarkozy’s passionate assertion that burqas will not be legal in France.

Redtracker reported yesterday: “The burqa is not a religious sign, it’s a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement — I want to say it solemnly,” he said. “It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic.” Note that President Obama says the U.S. will not get involved in the wearing apparel of its private citizens.

Certainly Qatar is more advanced on women’s rights than Iran. In 2008 the government equalized the law on compensation which had previously set the level of compensation to be paid for the loss of a woman’s life at half that of a man.

Carla makes small talk with the Qatari Princess, Mozah bint Nasser Al-Missned, who wore a turban to cover her hairYet Sarkozy ‘dropped the glove’ so to speak on the most visible symbol of oppression around Muslim women, hours before Prince Al Thani arrived, representing the government of Qatar.

I want to be certain that our readers understand that banning the burqa and niqab are not focused on the desire for Muslim women to wear a head scarf in public.

Both the burqa and niqab cover women totally, allowing only the eyes to peer from behind the cloth. The burqa covers the eyes with a mesh screen. The niqab has a narrow slit. A