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When I went to US public schools, I recieved about eight days of religiously-excused absences a year. Had the school not granted these religious exemptions, I might have failed certain marking periods for excessive absenteeism. I don't think this would have been fair, and I don't think the fact that I could have chosen to go to a Jewish day school instead would have made it any fairer. The religious absences had little impact on my ability to be a functioning member of the school, and were hence a reasonable accomodation for a special circumstance.
The question is not whether or not we like the burqa, it is whether or not wearing it automatically makes a woman incapable of functioning in French society. I think the answer to that is no - it makes things difficult, yeah, and she'll be outside the mainstream, but not so isolated that she can't go to school, hold down a job (of some sort), and take advantage of some of the freedoms of French society.
There are excellent reasons for preventing a woman in a burqua from getting a driver's licence, or getting into a place that requires photo ID, or, for that matter, from certain jobs. Just as the ADA doesn't mandate that a blind person be given equal access to jobs as crossing guards or air traffic controllers, religious toleration doesn't require that we accept a teacher or receptionist whose ability to communicate is severely limited by her religious choices. Otherwise, however, if a woman really does decide that she should walk around with her whole face covered, that is her perogative. The fact that she may have been raised in a narrow-minded environment that conditioned her to think that is not something any government can control
I do, however, agree there need to be tougher measures to make sure this is truly a choice on the woman's part, perhaps in the form of more resources for women looking to escape such environments.
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