4 pay burkini fines in Cannes
Print Edition
TEN Muslim women wearing burkinis to the beach have been apprehended by police in the southern French city of Cannes in the three weeks since it imposed a temporary ban on the full body swimsuit, a local official said.
Arguing that the burkini defies French laws on secularism, Cannes is one of three cities in France to have banned the garment amid tensions after an Islamist militant attack in nearby Nice killed 85 people on Bastille Day on July 14.
The moves have sparked an intense public debate, with Muslim groups calling them unconstitutional, divisive and Islamophobic. The Conseil d’Etat, France’s highest administrative court, will rule on the legality of the burkini bans in coming days.
In an interview with daily La Provence, Prime Minister Manuel Valls backed the municipal bans but said he saw no need for nationwide legislation.
The burkini — a conflation of the burqa and bikini — is designed for Muslims who believe that Islam requires women to conceal everything except the face, hands and feet from all men who are not their husbands or unmarriageable kin.
A Cannes townhall spokeswoman said yesterday that since the burkini ban was put in place on July 28, 10 burkini-wearing women have been controlled by police. Six left the beach, four were fined 38 euros (US$43).
Police cannot oblige women to leave the beaches for wearing a burkini, and the same person can only be fined once a day. The ban will end on August 31.
French citizens are on edge following a string of deadly attacks claimed by Islamic State, including attacks in Paris in November 2015 when 130 people were killed and the July 14 attack in Nice in which 85 people died when a militant plowed a truck into a crowd.
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