FRANCE has taken a united stand against the burka and the veil with a leading Muslim minister in Nicolas Sarkozy's Government condemning head-to-toe Islamic dress as "a prison and a straitjacket".

Following a landmark appeal court ruling denying French citizenship to a Moroccan woman who wore a burka at the behest of her French husband, Urban Affairs Minister Fadela Amara said all Islamic coverings for women, including the popular head and shoulder veil or hijab were "symbols of oppression".

"The burka is a prison; it's a straitjacket," she told Le Parisien.

"It is not a religious insignia but the insignia of a totalitarian political project that advocates inequality between the sexes and which is totally devoid of democracy."

The words burka and niqab are used interchangeably in France, although burka normally refers to the head-to-toe covering including a screen over the eyes that is popular in parts of Afghanistan. The niqab generally leaves a small slit for the eyes.

Ms Amara did not stop with her denunciation of the most extreme forms of Islamic dress for women and their incompatibility with French values such as secularism, democracy and sexual equality.

"The veil and the burka are the same thing. The only difference is a few centimetres of fabric," she said. "We have to fight against this obscurantist practice which endangers equality between men and women."