The burkini bans introduced by mayors in some French coastal towns has divided ministers, while the Council of State will rule Friday on a legal challenge to the prohibitons.
France’s Council of State will on Friday announce its judgment on whether the ban of the burkini, recently applied by a number of mayors of coastal towns in France, is legal. The bans, imposed mostly in south-east France and amid the backdrop of recent Islamist terrorist attacks, supposedly target the full-body swimwear worn by some Muslim women. But the prohibitions also exclude dress that might threaten “public order”, and there was uproar this week after several reported incidents of police patrols intercepting Muslim women wearing headscarves on the beach. Carine Fouteau analyses a controversy that not only encroaches basic human rights, but which also has played into the hands of the Islamic State group which was behind this summer's terrorist attacks in France.
The Australian designer credited with creating the swimwear for Muslim women says online sales have been 'hectic' following controversial French beach bans.
Bishop Nunzio Galantino denounced the ban in several coastal towns as a 'war on symbols' and a 'vulgar ridiculing of the religious sensitivity of others'.
