HRW Welcomes Court Ruling Against France’s ‘Discriminatory’ Burkini Ban

A French court on Friday suspended a ban on women wearing full-body “burkini” swimsuits on a Mediterranean town’s beach but the prime minister said the debate was not over, calling the outfit a symbol of a “backwards, deadly Islamism”.

According to BBC, the court ruled that the ban “seriously and clearly illegally breached fundamental freedoms to come and go, freedom of beliefs and individual freedom”.

Lawyers for a human rights group and a Muslim collective challenged the legality of the ban to the top court, saying the orders infringe on basic freedoms and that mayors have overstepped their powers by telling women what to wear on beaches.

“It is a decision that is meant to set legal precedent”, Spinosi said to reporters earlier outside the court.

The bans have triggered a fierce debate about women’s rights and the French state’s strictly-guarded secularism.

The mayoral decrees that prohibited the burkinis technically banned all beachwear that “ostentatiously displays religious affiliation”, but were clearly created to target the modest dress that has become extremely popular with more conservative Muslim women.

However, Mr Salles also said that the ban, which in Nice forbids any beachwear that “overtly manifests adherence to a religion”, would forbid Catholic nuns from appearing on the beach in their habits. But the French towns claimed that burkinis are worn only by those who support terror and the ban was in the name of “public safety” (or Islamaphobia, but that depends on your perspective, I suppose).

The Council of State’s ruling suspends a ban in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice, and could affect cities around the country that have prohibited the full-length swimsuit.

Last month, a truck rampage killed more than 80 people in Nice, and attackers stabbed an 86-year-old priest in northern France.

Amnesty International said the decision had “drawn an important line in the sand“. Pictures and a video recently emerged of French police showing officers enforcing the ban by making a woman take off an item of clothing. An Australian woman designed the burkini to allow Muslim women to keep their bodies covered while working as lifeguards. “French authorities must now drop the pretense that these measures do anything to protect the rights of women”.

He added that his party wishes to expand the 2004 law to bring the ban to all public spaces which affects those who wear the Islamic head covering, but also those who carry large Christian crosses in full view or wear the Jewish skullcap.

The local bans, as well as video footage of police standing over a woman on a beach as she removed a long-sleeved shirt, split the government and were widely covered – and widely ridiculed – by media around the world.