Burkini ban scrapped by top French judges
FRANCE’S highest appeal court yesterday scrapped burkini bans – saying they were “seriously and clearly illegal”.
A number of towns had banned the garment - an allover burka-style swimming costume worn by Muslim women - from their beaches.
But three judges at the Council of State in Paris ruled in favour of an appeal by the Human Rights League and the Collective Against Islamophobia in France.
The burkini bans provoked headlines around the world this week after photos showed armed police surrounding a covered Muslim woman on a beach in Nice.
Criminal
A tribunal on Monday in the Riviera city had ruled a burkini ban in the nearby town of Villeneuve-Loubet was “necessary, appropriate and proportionate” to prevent public disorder.
But the Council of State’s verdict will now provide a legal precedent for France.
Patrice Spinosi, for the Human Rights League, said mayors in all towns that had imposed the ban should now refund women who had been fined and scrap their criminal records.
Amnesty International said: “Today’s decision has drawn an important line in the sand.” But despite justice ministry sources in Paris insisting the ruling would apply immediately across all resorts, some mayors said they would not lift the ban.
Ange-Pierre Vivoni, mayor of the Corsican town of Sisco, claimed burkinis had sparked clashes between Muslim bathers and locals. He said: “Here the tension is very, very, very strong and I won’t withdraw it.” At least 15 cities, resorts and towns have implemented bans and many more were considering the same move.
The bans have since sparked fierce debate about France’s secular values, women’s rights and religious freedom.
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday called for a full ban as he warned that immigrants, minorities and the Left were threatening to destroy French identity.
In the first big speech of his campaign to win back the office he lost in 2012, Mr Sarkozy promised to reclaim France “for the French”.
“I refuse to let the burkini impose itself at French beaches and swimming pools,” he said, linking the garment to the July attack in Nice in which an Islamic State-linked lorry driver killed 85 people.
The groups who brought the appeal said 30 Muslims were among the dead in Nice and the attack had nothing to do with swimwear.
Symbols
They said the ban was being used by racists to spread guilt among five million plus French Muslims and to discriminate against Muslim women.
In 2010 France was the first European country to ban the Islamic veil in public, six years after outlawing the headscarf and other conspicuous religious symbols in state schools.
Security analysts have warned the dispute will fuel jihadist propaganda.
French prime minister Manuel Valls said he was not in favour of nationwide legislation.
But he claimed the burkini was “based on the enslavement of women”.