| Translate This News In |
|---|
The interior minister of France announced on Tuesday that he would seek to overturn a rule change in Grenoble that would enable women to wear burkinis in state-run swimming pools.
The all-in-one swimsuit, which some Muslim women use to cover their bodies and hair while taking a bath, is a contentious issue in France, where critics see it as a symbol of Islamisation.
ch The government wants to ban ‘burkinis’ in swimming pools.
On Monday, the Alpine city of Grenoble altered its swimming pool rules to allow all types of bathing suits, rather than just the traditional swimming outfits for women and trunks for men that were previously required. The change, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, is a “unacceptable provocation” that is “contrary to our values,” and he has asked for a court action to the proposed rules.
The government can keep challenging decisions it suspects of undermining France’s strict secular customs that are meant to separate religions from the state under a new law passed by parliament last year to combat “Islamist separatism.”
Attempts by several mayors in the southern france to ban the burkini on Aegean beaches in the summer of 2016 sparked the first firestorm.
The restrictions were ultimately overturned due to their discriminatory nature.
Grenoble’s mayor, Eric Piolle, one of the country’s most visible Green legislators who leads a broad left-wing coalition on a local level, has hailed the city’s decision as a triumph.
“All we want is for women and men to be free to dress how they want,” Piolle said on Monday to RMC.
Julien Bayou, the leader of the EELV party, claimed that the decision had nothing to do with atheism laws, which require state officials to be neutral in religious matters while guaranteeing citizens’ rights to freely practise their faith.
Burkinis are not prohibited in French state-run pools for religious reasons, but for hygiene reasons, and swimmers are not required by law to conceal their religion whilst also bathing.
“I want Muslim women to be able to practise, change, or not believe in their religion, and I want them to be able to swim,” he added. “I also want them to have fewer demands to dress in some way.”
