" fear that the "other" if allowed to publicly exist (i .e. not show a face)"

 The point of the face veil is to make individual women invisible in social space, while making militant Islam very visible.

"In its ruling, the ECJ has made a secularist stand against Islamists who seek to dominate the public space...

The Islamists wish to say: we Muslims are different from the West. Increasingly, we don’t look like you, or act like you. For Muslim families who have lived in Europe for generations, this is a strange and ugly trend. "

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/03/the-right-to-ban-the-veil-is-good-news-for-everybody-including-muslims/