After all, many mayors continue to argue that the burkini is a threat to public order and polling has showed that an overwhelming French majority favours a burkini ban.
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The court also stated that the burkini ban can not be justified by “proven risks of disruptions to public order nor, moreover, on reasons of hygiene or decency”.
The Council of State ruled that, “The emotion and concerns arising from the terrorist attacks, notably the one perpetrated in Nice on July 14, can not suffice to justify in law the contested prohibition measure”.
But the town’s mayor, Lionnel Luca, denounced the ruling.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls has defended the ban but some ministers have criticized it, splitting the government.
“We are not talking about banning the wearing of religious symbols on the beach. but ostentatious clothing which refers to an allegiance to terrorist movements which are at war with us”, one French head of municipal services, Thierry Migoule, told Agence France-Presse (via Mic), before the ban was overturned.
“From now on, it is up to everyone to take responsibility for cooling off, which is the only way to avoid public order disturbances and to try and live together”, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
Mayor Ange-Pierre Vivoni of Sisco town in Corsica said he will keep the prohibition on burkini “for the safety of property and people in the town”.
Technically, other local bans are still in effect until mayors revoke them or groups contest them in courts.
Nevertheless, the mayor of the Corsican town of Sisco said he wouldn’t lift the ban he imposed after an August 13 clash on a beach.
Here the tension is very, very, very strong and I won’t withdraw it.
Many conservatives and right-wing French nationals supported the burkini ban, with some calling for it to be extended nationwide, while civil liberties campaigners, feminists and Muslims opposed it.
Marine Le Pen is predictably all for the ban.
Socialist President Francois Hollande, who hasn’t announced whether he will seek a second term, has remained cautious in comments on the burkini.
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“Not only are they in themselves discriminatory, but as we have seen, the enforcement of these bans leads to abuses and the degrading treatment of Muslim women and girls”, Amnesty International said in a statement.
