‘Line in the Sand’: Court Halts Burkini Ban on French Beaches

The legal ruling only affects Villeneuve-Loubet, but the decision is expected to act as legal precedent for how similar bans should be handled in 26 other French towns that have banned the swimsuit favored by some Muslims.

Human rights groups petitioned France’s highest administrative authority, the Council of State, which ruled on Friday that banning the burkini violates fundamental rights.

Opinions polls suggested most French people backed the bans, which town mayors said were protecting public order and secularism.

The contentious ban prevented women from enjoying the beach, and caused global uproar earlier this week after images surfaced of a woman being forced to undress in public by police officers, or risk getting cited for not wearing an “outfit respecting good morals and secularism”.

“By overturning a discriminatory ban that is fuelled by and is fuelling prejudice and intolerance, today’s decision has drawn an important line in the sand“, Amnesty’s Europe director John Dalhuisen said.

“We need a law”, Nice’s conservative deputy mayor Christian Estrosi said on Twitter, calling for a bill that would allow burkini bans.

Speaking to French daily La Croix on Sunday, Cazeneuve reiterated the government’s opposition to legislating on the controversial matter which has sparked fierce debate both at home and overseas about women’s rights and France’s strictly guarded secularism.

On Wednesday, photographs that showed armed French police officers looking on as a woman removed part of her burkini-like clothing on a beach in Nice, southern France, were widely shared on social media and sparked fresh public debate on the issue.

The government also previously banned Muslim headscarves and other “conspicuous” religious symbols in French schools in February 2004. France separates religion and public life, and was the first European country to ban the wearing of the Islamic face veil in public in 2010.

Vallaud-Belkacem, who is of Moroccan origin, took issue with the wording of the ban in Nice which linked the measure to the jihadist truck attack in the resort last month in which 86 people were killed.

He stuck to his guns Friday evening, saying the State Council’s ruling “does not end the debate which has been opened”. Religious conservatives, who have been gaining ground, say such bans are enforcing Western-inspired freedoms and styles.

Patrice Spinosi, a lawyer for the Human Rights League, one of the groups that had challenged the ban, said his association would now ask mayors in other towns to withdraw their bans.

While addressing only one local ban, the Council of State sets general principles in its ruling that any mayors will now have to abide by when using their powers in the future.

A lower court had ruled on Monday that the Villeneuve-Loubet ban was necessary to prevent public disorder.