Alarming photos have hit the internet, showing armed French police officers surrounding a middle-aged Muslim woman on the beach and making her remove some of her clothing.
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The woman is pictured removing a veil and baring her arms.
The woman had her head covered with a scarf and was wearing a top matching to it. Officers appointed for implementing the ban on Burkini, wrote an on-the-spot ticket and fine the women.
Another 34-year-old woman told French news agency AFP she was fined for wearing leggings, a headscarf, and a tunic while sitting on the beach with her family in Cannes on Tuesday. “Go home. This is fundamentalism, ‘” she said the group told her, recounting the event to the Associated Press, which chose not to identify her by name for her own protection.
She added: “Her daughter was crying”.
The woman, a Toulouse native named only as Siam, was strolling on the beach while on holiday with her two children.
The woman had gone to the beach in Cannes, and said she was given a verbal warning when she refused to remove the headscarf.
The Australian designer of the burkini said she has enjoyed increased sales of the body-covering swimwear for Muslim women since three French cities banned it.
According to The Guardian, Nice’s new rule specifically bans clothing that “overtly manifests adherence to a religion at a time when France and places of worship are the target of terrorist attacks”.
But French police appear to be cracking down on any type of headscarf worn on the beach, including at the incident in Nice, among others.
A court in Nice on Monday judges upheld the “burkini ban” in the resort of Villeneuve-Loubet – ruling that the female swimwear was liable to cause offence and to provoke people to violence.
“Today we are forbidden from going to the beach”.
The rising tensions over burkini bans has spurred France’s national government to intervene.
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France’s highest administrative court will review the bans on Thursday, after French NGO the Human Rights League appealed the measures. Trudeau’s comments come after he was asked about France’s controversial decision to ban burkinis and as some Quebec lawmakers are considering outlawing them as well.
