The French town’s ban on the burkini was overturned by the country’s Council of State on Friday, which said it infringed on basic freedoms.
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The bans were imposed on some French resorts as a measure to protect public order, but one French court has already suspended one, saying it “breached fundamental freedoms”.
A court in Nice had upheld the Villeneuve-Loubet ban just days earlier.
The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) hailed the ruling as a “victory for common sense”.
This comes after shocking photos showed armed police standing around a Muslim woman with a headscarf, and forcing her to remove her top on a beach in Nice this week.
But 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.
The burkini bans have triggered a fierce debate about women’s rights and the French state’s strictly-guarded secularism.
The ruling from the state council suspends a single decree against full-body swimsuits issued by the mayor in the southern resort of Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice.
The wealthy entrepreneur has apparently taken an active role in the debate, asking the mayors of each of the 26 towns where the burkini ban is in place to send him the fines directly so that he can pay them.
While Valls argued that burkinis oppress women, two ministers in his cabinet, Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem and Health Minister Marisol Touraine, have said banning burkinis is not a good option. As CNN notes, officials claim the ban is working against rising terror concerns, however many felt it was an arm of Islamophobia and unwarranted means of regulating what women wear.
Those events clearly had an impact on reactions to religious attire, with Relevant Magazine noting the words of the Cannes bylaw, which reads: “Beachwear that 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”.
As he kicked off his comeback campaign for the Republicain party, he told reporters that rise of young women wearing burkinis on certain beaches in France can be stopped if the country is firm. “This decision will raise tensions and passions”. He suggested he would take action when Parliament returns from its summer leave – but did not say what kind of law he would seek.
Former President Nicolas Sarkozy and other some other conservative candidates want a national law banning burkinis.
“However, Muslims must continue to engage with us over gender equality, the inviolate nature of the principles of the French Republic, and tolerance in order to live together in peace”, he said.
Le Pen, who is running for president in the 2017 race, wrote in a statement that: “The burkini would obviously be part of it”.
Patrice Spinosi, a lawyer for the Human Rights League, one of the groups that had challenged the ban, said his association would now ask mayors in other towns to withdraw their bans.
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France’s move toward secularism has also led to the ban of pork-free options in some schools, so Jewish and Muslim students are forced to choose between “pork or nothing”, Christian Today (CT) details.
