Many Indian Muslim women have expressed dismay over the decision by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to ban burqa, a traditional wearing of Muslim women, said a report of local newspaper Times of India.

From a college lecturer in Mumbai to a young married woman in Bihar and a student in Lucknow, many Indian Muslim women said the burqa is "an article of faith, a pillar of support" which they choose to wear themselves, according to the report.

"It is so embarrassing that a head of state can make such an ill-conceived statement. There's simply no compulsion to wear a burqa," the report quoted New Delhi-based Jamia Millia geography professor Haseena Hashia as saying.

Many Indian Muslim women believe in a world where sexual-crime is rampant, the burqa "denotes comfort, security and allows a woman her dignity", said the report.

Mahruq, a 26-year-old descendant of Nawab Jafar Mir Abdullah royal family in Lucknow, northern India, Mahruq, said she feels safer wearing a burqa to crowded public places and "protected from eve-teasers and anti-social elements as they don't get to see me or my body."

Moonisa Bushra Abedi, a professor of nuclear physics in Maharashtra College in Mumbai, said a covered body "sends out a positive signal that says no sexual mischief will be tolerated", according to the report.

Sarkozy has imposed the banning of burqa in public places in France because he believes it symbolizes "slavery".

Source: Xinhua