The burkini bans have triggered a fierce debate about the wearing of the full-body swimsuit, women’s rights and the French state’s strictly-guarded secularism.
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The city of Nice has lifted a controversial ban on burkinis – the latest French seaside resort to do so, in line with a national court ruling.
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Judges in Nice said the July 14 terror attack on the French Riviera city gave insufficient grounds to justify such a ban.
The latest burqini ban to be officially quashed was the one in Nice, where pictures of French police allegedly ordering a Muslim woman to remove clothing brought condemnation on France from the United Nations and rights groups around the world.
The decision in Nice comes as other French courts determined that mayors in Villeneuve-Loubet and Cannes, among others, had no legal right to impose such dress codes.
These decrees do not improve the security situation but rather fuel religious intolerance and the stigmatisation of Muslims in France, especially women, said Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
A photo published last week of a Muslim woman on a beach in Nice, being forced by armed policemen to remove part of her costume, caused widespread outrage.
French prime minister Manuel Valls poured oil on the burkini swimsuit controversy when he lauded a bare-breasted symbol of the French Republic and declared that she is “not veiled, because she is free”.
Remember how that burkini ban in France was overturned last week in court?
Mr Luca denounced “rampant Islamisation” in the country and said: “They’ve gained a small additional step”. France’s government sought Monday to open a new chapter in relations with the country’s Muslims after a summer scarred by terrorist attacks and a ban on the modest swimwear that ratcheted up communal tensions.
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He said people who wear burkinis or any another clothing “cannot be blamed for the violent or hostile reactions of others”.
