This is Rachid Nekkaz, a French businessman who announced he will pay all fines for women who are charged with wearing the niqab — not just in France but “in whatever country in the world that bans women from doing so”. 

The niqab is a filmy cloth attached to the headscarf that covers all but the eyes. Any woman found to be wearing the niqab in France in public can be fined upto €150 ($200) and ordered to attend ‘re-education classes’. Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland all have — or are planning — similar legislation.

The businessman has already paid fines for women in both France and Belgium where wearing the piece of cloth is outlawed. He said: 

I’m in favour of a law to convict a husband who forces a women to wear the niqab and who forces her to stay at home. But I’m also for a law that lets these women move freely in the streets, because freedom of movement, just like any freedom, is the most fundamental thing in a democracy. 

 He is pictured above with Kenza Drider, the longshot “freedom candidate” for French presidency, after accompanying her to a police tribunal in Paris where she appeared for violating the ban. Drider told The Associated Press in an interview: 

When a woman wants to maintain her freedom, she must be bold. I have the ambition today to serve all women who are the object of stigmatization or social, economic or political discrimination. It is important that we show that we are here, we are French citizens and that we, as well, can bring solutions to French citizens.

Nekkaz put up a €2m ($2.5m) property to fund his campaign. 

Photo credit: Getty