For one Muslim student, wearing an enveloping robe, called an abaya, and a veil that conceals her face is a choice of “religious and personal freedom.”            Yet many people, like Kimberly Sawor, feel that the niqab and burqa, veils that cover the face, represent the oppression of women of Islamic faith.            “It’s what’s instilled in them,” said Sawor, a sophomore business management major. “They’re completely put at this level and they can’t move from there, so it’s not really their choice. It’s not about choice at all. It’s about tradition and dominance.”            The debate over Islamic face veils is one that divides the faith from its believers. Many Muslim leaders contest that the Koran does not explicitly state that women must cover their faces, which is why many Muslim women choose to wear a hijab, which only covers the hair and neck. However, one international student believes that “God told all women to wear niqab,” and supporters of the face veils agree.            “We women wear the abaya […]to protect us from harm,” said a Saudi Arabia native, who wished to remain anonymous, in an e-mail interview. “Who[ever] says that wearing the abaya is persecution of women is a liar.”              In an effort to eliminate the debate entirely, the French senate passed a bill two weeks ago that will make it illegal for anyone to wear any face-covering veil in public. Anyone who breaks this law will face fines of 150 euros or a mandatory citizenship class. In addition, anyone who coerces Muslim women into wearing a burqa, such as a father or husband, will also face strict penalties.             French government officials fear that the passing of this bill will cause the French-Muslim population, estimated at around five million people, to feel as though they are being targeted and discriminated against for their beliefs. Point Park University French professor Rebecca Taksel believes that Muslims who wish to live in France should embrace the new law and ideals of democracy.            “It sounds like racism and it sounds like anti-immigration, but that isn’t it. It’s something else,” Taksel said. “If you want to live in a west that has fought for centuries to allow democracy and a great deal of individual personal freedom, then you have to get with that program, which is tolerance.”             Coinciding with the view that Islam is an intolerant religion, the French government also feels that the nearly 2,000 French-Muslims who wear burqas are a threat to the nation’s secular values.            “In France, there is a very determined, distinct constitutional division between church and state,” said Channa Newman, a French and global cultural studies professor. “Nothing that has to do with religion can have anything to do with the business of government. In America, that’s not the case. In America, you swear on the Bible and you can’t become president if you don’t go to church.”            As a supporter of separation of church and state, Newman said she is not opposed to any laws that prohibit the display of religion in public. She also disapproves of the fact that religion is inextricably linked to government in American society.            “America is a very conservative, very controlling society,” Newman said. “And also it drums up and promotes religion deliberately – the American government does -because religion is a divisive thing.”            With the American media showing interest and shock over the burqa ban, some wonder if the United States government will follow suit by adopting a similar ban against religious displays in public. Newman believes that our country has a long way to come before adopting the secular vision that the founding fathers were believed to have possessed.            “I think [Thomas]Jefferson would have wanted that,” Newman said. “I think that’s part of the enlightenment ideals which America has abandoned.”