A spokesperson for Amnesty International said the court’s ruling “has drawn an important line in the sand” and that “French authorities must now drop the pretence that these measures do anything to protect the rights of women”.
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But it’s unclear how other towns with burkini bans will respond to Friday’s decision.
The lawyer, Patrice Spinosi, says that if the mayors refuse to do so after Friday’s ruling by the Council of State, he will systematically take each case to court.
Supporters appealed to France’s particular form of secularism, which imposes strict restrictions on any display of religion in public life, and argued that the burkini is a display of “allegiance” to Islam.
Conservative politicians, including ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy, have asked for a nationwide burkini ban.
Critics of the bans have said they unfairly targeted Muslims and stirred up fear in the wake of deadly terrorist attacks in France and elsewhere in Europe.
“These bans do nothing to increase public safety, but do a lot to promote public humiliation”.
Security analysts have warned that the dispute will fuel jihadist propaganda for groups like ISIS, as they attempt to portray France and other Western countries as being at war with Muslims.
“The images of police confronting the woman in Nice on Tuesday show at least four police officers standing over a woman who was resting on the shore at the town’s Promenade des Anglais, the scene of last month’s Bastille Day lorry attack”.
Worldwide opposition to the ban galvanized recently as photos purporting to show a woman forced to strip out of her burkini made headlines and were widely shared on social media.
“We need a law”, Nice deputy mayor Christian Estrosi said on Twitter.
“I condemn these unacceptable provocations”, he said.
Burkini bans in France have sparked global outrage.
Protesters demonstrate against France’s ban of the burkini, outside the French Embassy in London on Thursday.
Jenny Dawkins, a Church of England priest, told CNN she joined the protest after seeing a photo of the incident in Nice.
Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen said the battle is not over.
The row centres on France’s secular principles, but the debate appears to have been hijacked for political gain.
France was the first European country to ban the wearing of the Islamic face veil in public in 2010.
Burkinis are created to cover women’s heads, arms and legs while bathing, in keeping with Islamic standards of modesty.
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The Human Rights League had challenged it on the grounds that it was an infringement of religious freedom.
