Woman detained for France veil ban protest

A woman has been detained in France at a protest against a ban on Muslim woman concealing their faces behind a veil when in public.

Police said she was held not because of her veil but for taking part in an unauthorised protest against the ban.

Earlier, in the southern city of Avignon, Kenza Drider boarded a train wearing a niqab - as she had long declared she would - unchallenged by police.

"It's not an act of provocation," she said. "I'm only carrying out my citizens' rights, I'm not committing a crime... If they ask me for identity papers I'll show them, no problem."