A controversial ban on the burkini was overturned by France’s highest administrative court on Friday (Saturday NZ time), prompting a Right-wing backlash as mayors vowed to defy the ruling.
Advertisement
The contentious ban prevented women from enjoying the beach, and caused worldwide uproar earlier this week after images surfaced of a woman being forced to undress in public by police officers, or risk getting cited for not wearing an “outfit respecting good morals and secularism”.
Commenting on a couple “where the wife was swimming fully dressed”, mayor Lionnel Luca says: “I considered that unacceptable for hygienic reasons”. “If not legal actions could be taken”, Patrice Spinosi was quoted as saying by the AP.
The original ban was challenged by the Human Rights League (LDH) and Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), who took the case to the State Council. He said: “We welcome the decision by the court”.
“Beachwear which ostentatiously displays religious affiliation, when France and places of worship are now the target of terrorist attacks, is liable to create risks of disrupting public order”, his order said. “We reject this vision of France”.
For Christian Estrosi, an outspoken supporter of the burkini ban who runs the Provence-Alpes Cte d’Azur regional council, where a significant number of the bans were passed, Friday’s decision was a contradiction of precisely those Republican values.
Ange-Pierre Vivoni brought in the rule after a fight on a beach originally thought to have been sparked by the swimwear, which covers the body and hair.
Earlier in the week he had said “it’s about respecting the dignity of people; it’s about respecting the dignity of women”.
The ban had been imposed on the grounds that wearing burkinis contravened French laws on secularism. “Because the burkini swimsuit is freedom and happiness and lifestyle changes – you can’t take that away from a Muslim, or any other woman, that chooses to wear it”, Aheda Zanetti told the newspaper.
The issue also highlights the problems Muslims in France have experienced following a series of deadly attacks carried out by Islamist militants against the public in the past 20 months, including in Parais and Nice.
Critics compared the enforcement of the ban to repression in Saudi Arabia and Iran, where religious police enforce strict dress codes on women.
They suspended the ban in Villeneuve-Loubet, which will likely set a national precedent, according to the Hill.
But in a sign of the divisions within the Socialist government on the issue, Education Minister Najat Vallaud- Belkacem said the “proliferation” of burkini bans “was not a welcome development”.
In response, women spoke out to reporters and across Twitter - pointing out that, despite French politicians’ attempt to cloak the ban in feminism as a way of liberating women, it was in truth another way for people to tell women what they were allowed to wear.
Since conservatives do not have a majority in parliament and such a bill would have no chance of being adopted, Estrosi suggested that Valls come up with a draft law. Opponents call them discriminatory.
Terrorism analysts warned that the bans were feeding jihadist propaganda and could help Isil recruit new members.
And French illustrator La Sauvage Jaune showed the various expectations placed on women, depending on which part of the world they’re in.
French politicians remain divided.
Razzy Hammadi, the party spokesman, said he hoped it would “put an end to this nasty controversy”.
Advertisement
Amnesty International said yesterday’s court decision had “drawn an important line in the sand”.
