The News Minute| October 21, 2014| 3.00 pm IST
An opera cast performing – La Traviato in a theatre in Paris ‘objected strongly’ against the presence of a woman in the audience, wearing a “niqab-type veil”and forced her to leave, a report that appeared in The Daily Mail says.
The group of artists also refused to perform their act, unless she removed her veil. The incident took place in a major theatre house in Paris on the 3rd of October. But ever since media took up the issue, it is being discussed widely in the country.
The director of the opera, Jean-Philippe Thiellay said that a singer spotted the woman in the front row during the second act, and some performers in the team said they didn’t want to sing. The woman was asked by the security guards to either uncover her face or to leave the show, and she left with her friend.
Daily Mail says that though the identity of the woman is not revealed, she is believed to be from a gulf state.Though the incident has irked the liberals in the country’s art community, France’s Socialist government reiterated its earlier stand that it would strongly enforce the anti-hijab law to avoid such incidents.
The anti-hijab law was enforced by France in 2011. Muslims are banned from covering their face in public according to this law. Though women have been penalised for wearing a headscarf before, this is the first time someone was forced to leave the premises altogether, the report says.
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