PARIS , France ( CNN ) -- The French National Assembly announced Tuesday the creation of an inquiry into whether women in France should be allowed to wear the burka , one day after President Nicolas Sarkozy controversially told lawmakers that the traditional Muslim garment was `` not welcome '' in France . A woman wears traditionnal Muslim dress n Venissieux , near Lyon . A cross-party panel of 32 lawmakers will investigate whether the traditional Muslim garment poses a threat to the secular nature of the French constitution . They are due to report back with their recommendations in six months . Last week 57 lawmakers -- led by communist legislator Andre Gerin -- signed a petition calling for a study into the feasibility of legislation to ban the burka in public places . On Monday Sarkozy declared in a keynote parliamentary address that the burka , which covers women from head to toe , is `` not welcome '' in France . Watch why burkas are such a controversial issue in France » . `` The problem of the burka is not a religious problem . This is an issue of a woman 's freedom and dignity . This is not a religious symbol . It is a sign of subservience ; it is a sign of lowering . I want to say solemnly , the burka is not welcome in France , '' Sarkozy told lawmakers . The right of Muslim women to cover themselves is fiercely debated in France , which has a large Muslim minority but also a staunchly secular constitution . Should Muslim women in France be banned from wearing the burka ? Sound Off below . In 2004 , the French parliament passed legislation banning Muslim girls from wearing headscarves in state schools , prompting widespread Muslim protests . The law also banned other conspicuous religious symbols including Sikh turbans , large Christian crucifixes and Jewish skull caps . Last year , France 's top court denied a Moroccan woman 's naturalization request on the grounds that she wore a burka . Some lawmakers have called for burkas to be banned completely , claiming they are degrading to women . They also include housing minister Fadela Amara , a Muslim-born women 's rights campaigner , who has called the garment `` a kind of tomb for women . '' `` We can not accept in our country women trapped behind a fence , cut off from social life , deprived of any identity . This is not the idea that we have of a woman 's dignity , '' Sarkozy said Monday . But French Muslim leaders say that only a small minority of women wear the full veil and had previously criticized calls for the issue to be the subject of a parliamentary inquiry . `` To raise the subject like this , via a parliamentary committee , is a way of stigmatizing Islam and the Muslims of France , '' Mohammed Moussaoui , the head of the French Council for the Muslim Religion , told AFP last week . `` We are shocked by the idea parliament should be put to work on such a marginal issue . '' According to CIA estimates , between 5 and 10 percent of France 's 64 million population are Muslim . The country does not collect its own statistics on religion in accordance with laws enshrining France 's status as a secular state . France is not the only European Union country to have considered banning the burka . Dutch lawmakers voted in favor of a ban in 2005 , although the government of the time was defeated in elections before it could pass legislation to outlaw the garment .
French lawmakers to consider whether burka threatens French secularism . The debate has been sparked by a series of incidents in which women wearing the niqab have faced discrimination and harassment at public events. Debate is raging in France about Muslim women wearing the traditional garment .