After headscarf, burkini sets off controversy in France
PARIS – Grenoble city’s decision to allow women to wear the ‘burkini’ in municipal swimming pools has set off a heated controversy in France, with the government deeming the authorization “provocative.”
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has objected to the authorization of ‘burkinis’ as “unacceptable community provocation.”
The ‘burkini’ is a full-body covering swimming costume worn by Muslim women in order to partake of water sport while fulfilling religious requirements for covering the body.
“I have instructed the prefect to refer to the deliberation allowing the wearing of the ‘Burkini’ to ‘secularism’ and, if necessary, to request its withdrawal,” he posted on Twitter.
After the Grenoble city council adopted new regulations lifting restrictions on swimwear in public swimming pools, the Isere prefecture where Grenoble is located, raised objections with the Interior Ministry and the administrative court. The new rules allow women to wear both the head-to-toe covering (burkinis) as well as bathe topless if they want.
Grenoble is the second city in France after Renne to allow the wearing of the burkini in municipal swimming pools.
The approved regulations that were first proposed by the city’s ecologist mayor Erick Piolle have stirred a political storm, enraging far-right parties and certain public authorities, who accuse the burkini as an “Islamist outfit” and the decision of “succumbing to Islamism.”
Piolle defended abolishing the dress code restrictions as it prevented a section of vulnerable populations like Muslim women and trans people from using the public swimming pools.
He responded to Darmanin on Twitter, urging him “to re-read the 1905 law, rather than twist it.”
The 1905 secularism law promulgating separation of the church and the state is a highly contentious piece of legislation that has been used by politicians to frequently target the minority Muslim population. Display of religious signs like wearing of the Islamic headscarf or ‘hijab’ has been charged as incompatible with the “secular values of the republic.”
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