Local officials in the French city of Grenoble cleared the way for women to wear ‘burkinis’ in state-run swimming pools Monday, firing up a perpetual debate over the swimsuit perceived by some as an affront to France’s secularist traditions, reports Politico.
Grenoble’s city council, where the Greens currently hold a majority, voted to scrap several bathing dress codes, local TV channel France 3 reported.
The burkini — an all-in-one swimsuit mainly worn by Muslim women — has consistently raised controversy among many right wingers and some feminists who argue it is a symbol of Islam’s unequal treatment of women and is at odds with the French laïcité (state secularism).
The swimsuit first whipped up a storm when several local French mayors tried to ban burkinis on beaches in 2016, before the proposals were struck down as discriminatory. Then, last summer, five women were fined in Grenoble for entering a state-run swimming pool in burkinis.