MILAN, Sept 28: For Italian fashion guru Giorgio Armani, it's no crime for a woman to wear a burqa. "It's a question of respect for the convictions and culture of others. We need to live with these ideas, we need to learn how to do it," Armani was quoted as saying by Italian newspapers on Tuesday.

A small town in northern Italy sparked an uproar this month by fining a woman for venturing outdoors in a burqa. Armani dismissed as absurd the view that women clad in burqas are a possible terror threat.

"To see a veiled woman on the streets of Paris used to have an exotic appeal. Now they are seen as terrorists and people take fright," Armani said. "You can be packed with explosives even with your face uncovered."

A member of Italy's Northern League denounced the burqa as a "symbol of death" because women involved in a bloody attack on a Russian school had worn the robes. -Reuters