Mayor of Cogolin Marc Etienne Lansade claimed people should live according to the local customs and traditions of the country they are in.
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“If you are accepted in Rome – do like Romans do”, he said, adding, “go in Saudi Arabia and be naked and see what will happen to you”.
The ruling came after over 30 towns in France opted to ban the burkini – a swimsuit mostly worn by Muslim women.
A right-wing French mayor has vowed to continue with the burkini ban despite France’s top court ruling the restriction is illegal.
“We urge all remaining local authorities which have adopted similar bans to repeal them immediately, rather than exploit the limited geographical scope of this particular decision in order to keep their highly discriminatory bans in place until the end of the current holiday season”, he said.
A French court has overturned a ban on burkinis issued in Cannes – the first in a series of bans on the swimwear this summer that set off a heated controversy at home and a wave of outrage overseas.
Lawyers for a human rights group and a Muslim collective challenged the legality of the Villeneuve-Loubet ban at the top court, saying the orders infringed basic freedoms and that mayors had overstepped their powers by telling women what to wear on beaches. Last month, a truck rampage killed more than 80 people in Nice, and attackers stabbed an 86-year-old priest in northern France. More rulings are expected in the next few days as local courts are hearing other contested town decrees.
Human rights activists insist the ban on burkinis is illegal, and that any efforts to prohibit use of the garment are Islamophobic.
Mayor Lansade, who intends to enforce the ban until September 15, said the burkini is “humiliating for the women that are wearing them”.
“These mayors don’t want to lose face in front of extreme-right voters”, Marwan Muhammad, the group’s president, told CNN.
Many officials – including prime minister Manuel Valls – have argued that burkinis oppress women, but two ministers of Mr Valls’s cabinet – education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem and health minister Marisol Touraine – have said banning burkinis is not a good option.
The UN on Tuesday welcomed a decision by France’s highest administrative court to suspend a controversial ban on burkini swimwear, warning that the ban had fuelled religious intolerance and stigmatisation.
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Valls called the burkini a “symbol of the enslavement of women”, and Sarkozy said wearing it was a “provocation”.
