City ordinances in Cannes effectively forbade the burkini as well as swimwear that “ostentatiously displays religious affiliation, when France and places of worship are now the target of terrorist attacks”.
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In the french resort town, Muslim women are now banned from wearing the swimsuit that covers everything but their face, hands, and feet. If they refuse to comply, they will be fined €38.
Cannes mayor David Lisnard said the burkini is a “symbol of Islamic extremism” and might disturb the peace in the wake of Islamist attacks on France, BBC reported.
Lisnard told the Nice Matin newspaper that the ban was created to “protect the population” in the context of France’s ongoing state of emergency and terror threat.
Not all women who opt to wear burkinis are Muslim.
Secularism, or la laïcité is a founding principle of the French republic.
In April 2011, France became the first European country to ban wearing in public the burqa, a full-body covering that includes a mesh over the face, and the niqab, a full-face veil with an opening for the eyes.
The order banning burkinis from the beach was issued on July 28, and no burkinis had been seen in public since then, he added. The same laws ban public school girls from wearing headscarves while attending class.
It comes almost a month after a terror attack in nearby Nice, where a man drove a heavy truck through a Bastille Day crowd on the city’s main beach promenade, killing 84.
Lionnel Luca, the mayor of Villeneuve-Loubet, said the burkini ban was being introduced due to sanitary reasons.
“We consider it necessary to put all appropriate measures in place to ensure the protection of women who are subjected to violence and pressure, and in particular are forced to wear the full veil”.
The Collective Against Islamophobia in France said it would appeal against the decision in France’s highest administrative court.
This kind of ban is not new to France.
Mr. Ravier was responding to a waterpark in nearby Marseille cancelling plans for a “burkini party” in September.
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“This is abuse of the law and we reserve the right to take this to the courts”, said Hervé Lavisse, head of the local section of the Human Rights League, according to the Telegraph. On July 26, a priest was killed in his church in northwestern France by attackers who had proclaimed their allegiance to the extremist group.
