The highest administrative court of France has suspended the ban on burkinis in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet, Near Nice, saying the Mayors enjoy no right to do so.
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The court said the ban “seriously, and clearly illegally, breached the fundamental freedoms to come and go, the freedom of beliefs and individual freedom”.
The burkinis did not pose any threat to public order, said the council, which is France’s highest administrative court.
The bans have divided France’s government and society and drawn anger overseas, especially after images circulated online showing police appearing to force a Muslim woman to take off her tunic.
Ange-Pierre Vivoni, Socialist mayor of the Corsican town of Sisco, said his Burkini ban, introduced this month following a confrontation between Moroccan bathers and locals, would also remain “for the safety of property and people in the town because I risked having deaths on my hands”.
The lawyer who is representing the claimants, Patrice Spinosi, told reporters outside the court that the decision should set a precedent and that other local authorities should conform to it. People who had been affected or harassed because of the ban could file defamation charges against authorities or claim the money they paid in fines, he added.
Under the French legal system, temporary decisions can be handed down before the court takes more time to prepare a judgement on the underlying legality of the case.
Protesters demonstrate against France’s ban of the burkini, outside the French Embassy in London, Britain on August 25, 2016.
The State Council (Conseil d’Etat) was specifically examining laws brought in by the commune of Villeneuve-Loubet but its verdict sets a legal precedent for France.
“No one, regardless of their religion and race, should be told what they should wear and where they can wear it”, event organizer Fariah Syed said to CNN of the burkini ban. “By overturning a discriminatory ban that is fuelled by and is fuelling prejudice and intolerance, today’s decision has drawn an important line in the sand”, said John Dalhuisen, its Europe director.
Anger over the issue was further inflamed this week when photographs in the British media showed police surrounding a woman in a headscarf on a beach in Nice.
“In that spirit, public space is a place where everyone, without discrimination, can be a free citizen”, he said in a statement.
But two ministers of Valls’ cabinet, Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem and Health Minister Marisol Touraine, said banning burkinis is not a good option.
Former president Nicolas Sarkozy waded into the debate, calling wearing bukinis a “provocation” that supports radical Islam.
He stuck to his guns Friday evening, saying the State Council’s ruling “does not end the debate which has been opened”.
“In my opinion, there is nothing to prove that there is a link between the terrorism of Daesh and what a woman wears on a beach”, she said, using another term for the militant group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
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CFCM secretary general Abdallah Zekri said: “This victory for common sense will help to take the tension out of a situation which has become very tense for our Muslim compatriots, especially women”. France has long-standing laws on secularism, and the Nice ban focused on “correct dress, respectful of accepted customs and secularism, as well as rules of hygiene and of safety in public bathing areas”.
