A newly announced ban on the burqini – a full-body swimsuit – on the beaches of the French city of Cannes is causing friction among critics after the city’s mayor said the beachwear could disrupt public order in France.
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It added: ‘Beachwear which ostentatiously displays religious affiliation, when France and places of worship are now the target of terroris tattacks, is liable to create risks of disrupting public order (crowds, scuffles etc) which it is necessary to prevent’.
But a court in Nice rejected the request, saying the move was legal under French law forbidding people from “invoking their religious beliefs to skirt common rules regulating relations between public authorities and private individuals”. However, if they refuse to change their clothing and choose not to leave the public beach, they are facing a $42 fine.
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. Muslim women will still be permitted to wear the veil over their hair. He also thinks that they are could spark violent incidents, due to the religious nature of the clothing.
Human rights groups and anti discrimination organisations are fighting the Cannes ruling, with the group Collective against Islamophobia in France expressing “deep concern” on their Facebook page at what they called an attack on the most basic principles of the law.
Lionnel Luca, the mayor of Villeneuve-Loubet, a Riveiera resort, said the ban was for sanitary reasons. Those who refuse to comply with the burkini ban will be forced to leave the beach and pay a 38 Euro fine, about United States $42.
France, which has a strong commitment to keeping its politics and public life secular, banned the wearing of the full face veil, the burkha, in public.
The Mayor of Cannes, in Southern France, has banned the “burkini” from its beaches.
Sefern Guez Guez, a lawyer for the CCIF said the group would appeal against the ruling at the highest level.
A priest was killed on July 26 in his church in northwestern France by two attackers who had proclaimed their allegiance to Islamic State.
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Cannes – a Riviera city better known for its glitzy yearly film festival than its religious positions – quietly passed the ban late last month. The attack killed 85 people and was claimed by IS.
