A 26-year-old Tunisian woman has been fined for wearing a face veil while walking to a mosque in northern Italy, increasing the fear about spreading discrimination against Muslim comunity across Europe.

Police in the city of Novara, a stronghold of Italy's anti-immigration Northern League, stopped the Muslim woman on Friday while she was walking with her husband to prayers wearing a black niqab that covered her face but left her eyes exposed.

Police handed her a 500-euro fine under a bylaw introduced in January by the mayor of Novara which bans clothing in public that prevents identification by police.

Initiatives towards a full veil ban have sparked protests from Muslim leaders in Europe, who resent laws that could discriminate against them on religious grounds.

The woman's husband defended the Islamic tradition.

"I respect the Italian law. I have been living here for 10 years," he told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. "But Amel can't be seen by other men."

Reuters