Despite strong condemnation by Muslims and rights groups, three more French towns are moving to ban the cover-up “burkini” swimsuits worn by some Muslim women, as Prime Minister Manuel Valls voiced support for such measures Wednesday.
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France’s prime minister said that while he supports local bans -“in the face of provocation, the nation must defend itself”, he told La Provence – he is not in favor of a national law against burkinis. “It is the expression of a political project, a counter-society, based notably on the enslavement of women”.
Are France’s burkini bans sexist, or liberating?
Some 90km from Oye-Plage, the resort of Le Touquet also chose to banish the Muslim swimwear.
Following the incident mayor Pierre-Ange Vivoni said that he would enact a ban starting on Tuesday.
The mayor of Cannes first banned the burkini from the city’s beaches last week, calling the swimsuit “the uniform of extremist Islamism, not of the Muslim religion” and disrespectful of “good morals and secularism”.
The full-face veil is banned in public with politicians citing issues of public security, women’s equality and the general secular ethos of modern France. Local press reported that it began when a group of teenagers and their families took photographs of women swimming in so-called burkinis – bathing suits that cover most of the body except for the face, feet and hands, which satisfy Islamic standards of modesty for women.
“We are not talking about banning the wearing of religious symbols on the beach, but ostentatious clothing which refers to an allegiance to terrorist movements which are at war with us”, he said.
Cannes’ example was followed by the mayor of another French Riviera town, Villeneuve-Loubet.
Rossignol did not say where she stood on banning the garment.
He backed the local officials’ decisions, as long as they were “motivated by the will to encourage people to live together rather than by political agendas”.
The ban was imposed at a special council session on Sunday, August 14 in Sisco amid tensions over the brawl, in which five people were hurt.
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Skirmishes at a beach in the commune of Sisco left four people injured and resulted in riot police being brought in to stop a crowd of 200 Corsicans marching into a housing estate with a high population of people of North African origin, shouting “this is our home”. The burkini “was created by Western Muslim women who wanted to conciliate their faith and desire to dress modestly with recreational activities”.
