France’s highest court considers reversing cities’ burkini ban

France’s highest administrative court on Thursday was due to examine a request to overturn a ban on the burkini, after photographs of police surrounding a woman on a beach fuelled controversy over the Islamic swimsuit.

France’s Human Rights League is appealing a decision by the southern town of Villeneuve- Loubet, near the Riviera city of Nice, which was one of the first of around 30 French towns to ban the burkini. A court in Nice upheld the ban this week.

The State Council has 48 hours to issue its ruling, which is expected to set a precedent for other towns.

The burkini bans have triggered a fierce debate in France and elsewhere about the wearing of the full- body swimsuit, women’s rights and secularism.

Anger over the issue was further inflamed when photographs were published in the British media of police surrounding a veiled woman on a Nice beach and removing her tunic.

The Nice mayor’s office, however, denied that the woman had been forced to remove any clothing, telling AFP that the woman was showing police the swimsuit she was wearing under her tunic, over a pair of leggings, when the picture was taken. Officers issued her a fine and she then left the beach, officials added.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he condemned any “stigmatization” of Muslims, but maintained that the burkini is “a political sign of religious proselytizing.”

“We are not at war with Islam ... The French republic is welcoming [ to Muslims], we are protecting them against discrimination,” he told BFMTV.

But Education Minister Najat VallaudBelkacem, who is of Moroccan origin, took issue with the wording of the ban in Nice, which linked the measure to the Bastille Day terrorist attack that killed 86 people in the resort city.