Some experts say that the law has actually propelled more women to wear the veil rather than discouraged it. De Feo said that numerous women she talks to who wear the niqab in France today were inspired to wear the veil by the law; often they are young converts to Islam.
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France’s highest administrative authority is studying whether local bans on full-body burkini swimsuits are legal, amid growing concerns in the country and overseas about police forcing Muslim women to disrobe.
There is danger that tensions in France over Muslim women being banned from wearing religious attire may escalate to the point where extremist groups take the matter into their own hands, Dr Natalie Doyle, an academic at Monash University who specialises in French society and politics, told SBS.
“We have to wage a determined fight against radical Islam, against these religious symbols which are filtering into public spaces”, Valls said in an interview on BFM-TV.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he condemned any “stigmatisation” of Muslims, but maintained that the burkini was “a political sign of religious proselytising”.
The French League of Human Rights has appealed to the Council of State to rule on whether the ordinance in Villeneuce-Loubet banning “all persons not wearing proper” attire from the beach – is legal.
The conservative mayor in Villeneuve-Loubet, Lionnel Luca, has said he wanted to foresee any disruption to the public order in a region badly hurt by the deadly Bastille Day truck attack in nearby Nice last month that killed more than 80.
Former president Sarkozy, 61, who is planning to run for office again next year, made the comments at a time when France is gripped by debate over the controversial attire.
Someone else writes: “When did the state dictating what a woman can and cannot wear become a “liberating act”. Whether women cover or uncover their bodies, seems we’re always ‘asking for it’.
“We have several million Muslims in France who are mostly moderates or non-practicing”.
To many outsiders, however, there are a number of confounding facts surrounding the burqa and burkini bans.
After demonstrators spread sand on the pavement outside the embassy, a woman in a burkini and a child sat playing in it. Others wore bikinis as traditional French accordion music played in the background. After all, there is now no French ban on turbans, taqiyahs, or kaffiyehs. “One of the joys of London is that we don’t simply tolerate difference, we respect it, we embrace it”. “There are more topics which are far more important in France”.
France has also banned the wearing of burqua in public places for security reasons.
The news comes two days after photographs emerged online of armed French policemen making a woman remove part of her clothing and pay an £11 fine due to the city’s temporary ban on the burkini.
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“This clears the way for racist slogans”, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem told Europe 1 radio on Thursday. I hope the highest administrative court will strike down the fifteen towns’ ban on the burka.
