Ordered off beach after burkini ban
A MUSLIM mother was reportedly ordered off a beach and fined for wearing a headscarf yesterday, hours after a French court upheld a ban on burkinis.
Three armed officers allegedly pointed a pepper spray canister at the 34-year-old in Cannes and told her she was in breach of a burkini ban.
She said the “racist” officers wanted to humiliate her and that she was not wearing a burkini.
Earlier French judges ruled that the swimwear was liable to “liable to offend the religious convictions or non-convictions of other users of the beach” and could be viewed as a “provocation exacerbating tensions”.
Human rights groups had challenged the measure at the Administrative Tribunal in Nice. They argued the ruling was petty and designed to spread hatred.
But judges said the ban, in the resort of Villeneuve-Loubet on the Cote d’Azur, was “necessary, appropriate and proportionate”.
There are now 15 French beaches with a ban and up to 10 women have been charged.
The Islamic hijab has formally become an optional part of the Police Scotland uniform as the force encourages Muslim women to join.