AP

Paris, Jul 17: A Muslim woman who sheaths herself in a head-to-toe veil is denied French citizenship because she hasn't assimilated enough into this society. France's highest body upholds the decision, and politicians across the spectrum agree it was the right move.

A few dissenting voices, though, are questioning whether the decision pushes France's secularist values too far.

''Where does it begin or end; what we are calling radical behaviour?'' asked Mohammed Bechari, president of the National Federation of French Muslims.

''Will we see a man refused citizenship because of the length of his beard or a man who is dressed as a rabbi, or a priest?'' he said.

Critics accuse the French justice system of using secularism as an excuse for breeding fear and intolerance of Islam in a country home to western Europe's largest Muslim population, estimated at least 5 million of the nation's 63 million people and growing.

French officialdom has struggled to instil secular traditions in diverse and evolving Muslim immigrant communities, passing a law in 2004 barring the Islamic headscarf and other highly visible religious symbols from public schools. Proponents of that law welcomed the decision denying citizenship to a woman wearing a niqab, or full-body veil, to her meetings with immigration officials.

''The burqa - it's a prison, a straitjacket,'' said France's minister for urban affairs, Fadela Amara, herself born to Algerian parents.

The terms ''burqa'' and ''niqab'' often are used interchangeably in France, though the former refers to a full-body covering worn largely in Afghanistan with only a mesh screen over the eyes.