A mayor on the French island of Corsica has become the third nationwide to announce a ban on burkinis, following weekend clashes allegedly sparked by a row over the full-body Islamic swimsuit.
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After the incident in Corsica, local authorities chose to ban the burkini, following the example of the cities of Cannes and Villeneuve-Loubet (on the Blue Coast of France), where the swimsuit was prohibited recently.
“I have neither the time nor the wish to argue”, said the conservative mayor, who signed a decree in effect until the end of August denying access to the city’s beaches to anyone whose attire does not respect “good morals and secularism” or “rules of hygiene and security”.
Several smaller towns have now followed Cannes in banning the burkini, and although no national ban is proposed at the moment, the Prime Minister’s seeming endorsement of the policy is a step in that direction.
France already has laws banning women and girls from wearing face-covering veils in public and headscarves in schools because they are religious symbols that are deemed to breach French secular principles.
While critics of the ban point out that the burkini is almost identical to a traditional wetsuit commonly worn by scuba divers and surfers.
The socialist government’s minister for women’s rights, Laurence Rossignol, said municipal bans on the burkini should not be seen in the context of terrorism but she supported the bans.
The Prime Minister’s comments arrive in the wake of an all-out beach brawl in Corsica, where tourists taking pictures of burkini-wearing got into a heated discussion with locals.
The justice authorities have launched an investigation into exactly what happened in the beach incident.
Valls said he understood the mayors’ decisions to ban the burkini for the sake of public order, but added that “a general regulation of dress requirements can not be a solution”.
The ban on so-called burkinis, at the height of the French Riviera’s vacation season, comes as France remains on edge after deadly Islamic extremist attacks on nearby Nice and on a Catholic church in northwest France.
He backed the local officials’ decisions, as long as they were “motivated by the will to encourage people to live together rather than by political agendas”.
The Mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, said in a statement that swimwear “manifesting religious affiliation in an ostentatious way, while France and its religious sites are now the target of terrorist attacks, could create risks of trouble to public order”. “It is the translation of a political project, based in particular on the subjugation of women”, he said.
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“Beaches, like all public spaces, must be kept free of religious claims”, he said, though he added that he does not plan on pushing for a countrywide ban on the burkini. “General rules on clothing restrictions can not be a solution”.
