Valls did not, however, state that he supported a nationwide burkini ban because, according to him, “overall regulations on proscribing clothes can not be a solution”.
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Leucate is located on the Mediterranean coast, 35 kilometres (20 miles) from Perpignan.
Much of the French political class, from the left to the far right, agrees including the government’s proudly feminist women’s affairs minister.
In the nearby upmarket resort of Le Touquet, local mayor and MP Daniel Fasquelle said he would also implement a burkini ban in the coming days “to fight against religious proselytising”. “We are telling Muslims that no matter what you do. we don’t want you here”, she said.
Islamic dress has always been a subject of debate in France, which was the first European country to ban the Islamic face veil in public in 2010, six years after outlawing the headscarf and other conspicuous religious symbols in state schools. The July 28 decree covering the beaches of Cannes outlaws people who don’t sport “the correct outfit that respects the proper customs and secularism and the rules of hygiene and safety”.
On Sunday, four people were injured in the town of Sisco in Corsica, during a brawl between locals and a group of women dressed in burkinis. Investigators are still probing what happened.
Last week organisers of a so-called “burkini party” at an indoor swimming pool in France have cancelled the event after they were sent bullets in the post.
The garment was subsequently banned in Cannes, Villeneuve-Loubet, Sisco and Le Touquet.
The bans are opposed by some, who contend they are a populist ploy, violate human rights and likely to inflame tensions. And calls on the authorities of Islam in France to vote in this sense.
“The burkini is not a new swimsuit fashion trend”.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in an interview published Wednesday in the La Provence newspaper that the swimwear represents a “provocation” and an “archaic vision” that women are “immodest, impure and that they should therefore be totally covered”.
The mainly conservative mayors who have imposed the ban say the garment, which leaves only the face, hands and feet exposed, defies French laws on secularism. Wearing a burkini remains legal in France as a whole.
“Following the [terrorist] attacks [of July in Nice], the atmosphere is very tense and the burqini is seen as an ostentatious display that can threaten public order, that is why we took the measure”, she said.
“The beaches, like any public space, must be protected from religious claims”.
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Abdallah Zekri, head of the National Observatory against Islamophobia, told BFM television that some French politicians were using the burkini debate to stigmatise Islam. “It is the translation of a political project, of opposition to society, that is based primarily on the subjugation of women”, he said.
