First Women Sentenced in Court and Fined Under France's Anti-Face-Veil Law

Two French women who continue to wear the full-face veil in defiance of a new law banning it in France have been fined 150 euros each by a court.

Hind Amas and Kenza Drider were caught wearing the niqab in public outside Meaux town hall, eastern Paris, in May.

They become the first of 91 women stopped by French police to be handed the 150-euro (£130) fine.

The women say they will appeal against their punishment all the way to the European Court of Human Rights.

However, these two women would most likely have to exhaust the appeals process in France - which can take considerable time - before they can hope to test the legislation in the European court in Strasbourg.

Thursday's sentencing in Meaux was closely followed not just in France but right across Europe, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris.

Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland all have - or are planning - similar legislation.

Divorced mother Amas, 32, who was sentenced with fellow campaigner and mother-of-three Drider, has become a champion for several hundred women in France who insist wearing the niqab is a personal choice and a right enshrined by European law.

Amas's parents were not strict Muslims. She put on the niqab for the first time six years ago as an educated single woman.

She claims she once wore mini-skirts and liked to party before she rediscovered her faith.

Some Muslim groups say since the ban was introduced in April a number of women have been assaulted both verbally and physically by members of the public.