MUSLIM WOMEN MAY BE FORCED TO DROP FACE VEILS, AND PICK UP ENGLISH-LANGUAGE SKILLS IN A NEW BRITISH GOVERNMENT SCHEME AGAINST EXTREMISM, PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON ANNOUNCED MONDAY.

LONDON • British Prime Minister David Cameron says he will back “proper and sensible” rules to ban women from wearing face veils in schools, courts and other institutions.

Cameron also announced Monday that tens of thousands of Muslim women would face deportation unless they pass a series of English language tests after coming to Britain on spouse visas. Under the plan, tens of thousands of migrants who come to Britain on a spouse visa to join their husband or wife will have to pass an additional English language test after two years.

The government is also preparing to announce a series of measures designed to stop British Muslims from becoming radicalized and travelling to the Middle East to join terrorist groups like ISIL.

As part of the plans, ministers will pledge to outlaw gender segregation in public buildings amid concerns that some Muslim organizations are forcing women to sit separately.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan will also announce plans Tuesday to force schools to help stop teenagers travelling abroad to fight alongside jihadist groups such as ISIL. Schools will be required to inform councils when pupils stop attending without any explanation and Muslim parents will be encouraged to carry out checks to ensure their children are not being radicalized.

Cameron’s comments about veils will reignite the row over whether British institutions should be able to stop women covering their faces for religious reasons in public places. He refused to endorse a French-style blanket ban but made clear that individual organizations could choose to stop Muslim women wearing the veil.

“I think in our country people should be free to wear what they like, within limits, live how they like” Cameron told BBC Radio 4.

“What does matter is if, for instance, a school has a uniform policy, sensitively put in place and all the rest of it, and people want to flout that uniform policy, often for reasons that aren’t connected to religion, you should always come down on the side of the school.”

Philip Hollobone, a Conservative MP, said: “I don’t want to live in a country where a police officer is veiled, where a news reader is veiled, where a nurse or doctor is veiled.”

Ministers are drawing up rules that will ban gender segregation in public meetings held in buildings owned by town halls. It follows concerns that Muslim men and women were separated in a series of public meetings in the run-up to the election.