The French Parliament is expected this week to begin a debate on a proposal to ban the wearing of the niqab, the full facial covering forced on women throughout the Middle East and Islamic Worlds by men who use religion as a form of oppression.

The practice of wearing the niqab as a part of the full body covering called the burqa by many Muslim women has been so longstanding that today, many Muslim women who wear it insist they are doing it by choice.

But are they? That is a question only Muslim women who cover their faces can answer. The bigger issue, though, is if the practice can be banned through legislation. Even bigger is the principle of true freedom that applies not only in France but in the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Although many in the Arab and Muslim worlds have condemned the legislation, those same voices have been silent on laws and practices imposed on women and non-Muslims in their own backyards.

The issue of France banning the niqab, or face veil, is minor compared to the bigger issue of legislation in force in Arab and Muslim countries that imposes even greater hardships and restrictions on their own citizens than the one now being debated in France.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a special joint meeting of both houses of the French parliament last year that veils that cover the face "are not welcome" in France. He repeated that view last week, calling the burqa with the full veiling of the woman's face "contrary to our values and contrary to the ideals we have of a woman's dignity."

Sarkozy is correct. Although women who veil insist they do it by choice, the fact is in many Arab and Muslim countries, they do not have the choice to remove it if they want. But the niqab is only one of a slew of restrictions now in practice in the Arab and Muslim worlds.

If France does not have the right to impose restrictions on the dress and customs of its citizens, why is it okay for some Arab and Muslim countries to impose through legislation and practice restrictions in their countries?

Last year, a female Sudanese journalist was charged by the government with "indecency" for wearing trousers. In addition to being forced not to wear pants, if convicted, she and other women violators faces a serious punishment.

Sudanese law, Article 152, which decrees up to 40 lashes with a whip for anyone "who commits an indecent act which violates public morality or wears indecent clothing."

France doesn't propose whipping women who wear the niqab but fining them the equivalent of $250.

Article 340 of the Jordanian Penal Code declares "[A man] who discovers his wife or one of his female relatives committing adultery (with a man) and kills, wounds or injures one or both of them, is exempt from any penalty."

Another clause states: "[A man] who discovers his wife or one of his female relatives with another in an adulterous situation, and kills, wounds or injures one or both of them benefits from a reduction in penalty."

Although there has been a long but somewhat muted debate to eliminate or change the law, the efforts have been have been repeatedly rebuffed.

They are called "honor killings" and they are a common practice not just in Jordan but in Egypt, Lebanon , Morocco, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey and Yemen. Honor killings have also been committed by Arabs and Muslims in many western countries such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Egypt, however, is debating the issue of forced veiling and a a conference on the pressures on women to force them to wear the niqab was held last year.

The issue is the sexual harassment of women who refuse to veil that takes place not only on public streets but in schools and the work places throughout the Arab World. The conference brought together activists from 17 countries concluding harassment is unchecked across the region because laws don't punish it, women don't report it and the authorities ignore it.

In Morocco, female rights associations called for the annulment of a law, article 475, that acquits a rapist for raping a minor if he marries her immediately afterwards, arguing it is like rewarding the rapist for the crime.

Two years ago in Saudi Arabia, a court increased the punishment for a female gang-rape victim after her lawyer won an appeal of the sentence for the rapists.

The 19-year-old victim was sentenced last year to 90 lashes for meeting with an male who was not a relative, a former friend from whom she was retrieving photographs. The seven rapists, who abducted the pair and raped both, received sentences ranging from 10 months to five years in prison.

The gang rape victim was sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes.

The judges reportedly imposed the sentence because the victim tried to "influence the judiciary through the media."

In Saudi Arabia, laws prohibit Saudis from marrying non-Saudis. The government law would offer a wide range of punishment from a form of discipline, refusing to recognize the marriage, and denying the "foreigner" in the marriage entrance in to the kingdom. If the non-Saudi was living in the country, their visa would be terminated immediately.

And in some cases, Muslims who have converted from Islam to Christianity have been killed or denounced and governments have "failed to act" to punish the offenders.

Muslims have launched widespread campaigns to teach American Christians about Islam, distributing free copies of the Qur'an in house to house campaigns. Christians who seek to do the same thing, distribute copies of the Bible, or Jews seeking to convert Muslims, would be arrested, deported and, in some cases, harmed.

France may be engaged in a heated debate about a policy to free women from the oppression of the full burqa and the niqab, but clearly the French law is not unique and is similar to laws and practices that are commonplace and sometimes not debated in the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Clearly, the protests against the French law are hypocritical.

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