PHOTOGRAPHS HAVE EMERGED of armed French police telling a woman sunbathing on a beach to remove a Muslim-style garment.
At least three officers stand over the woman as she removes the item of clothing.
The incident is believed to have occurred on Tuesday and comes as France’s top court is set to examine a controversial ban on the Islamic burkini.
Photographs from the beach in Nice, close to where July’s jihadist attack killed 84 people, show the woman removing the garment as one of the officer takes notes or issues her a fine.
It’s unclear whether the item of clothing she is wearing is actually a burkini.
The Islamic burkini swimsuit has been banned in several French towns but the decision is to set to come before France’s highest administrative court tomorrow.
The bans have triggered a fierce debate in France and elsewhere about the wearing of the full-body swimsuit, women’s rights and secularity.
The Nice tribunal ruled on Monday that the ban in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet was “necessary, appropriate and proportionate” to prevent public disorder.
The burkini was “liable to offend the religious convictions or (religious) non-convictions of other users of the beach,” and “be felt as a defiance or a provocation exacerbating tensions felt by” the community, it added.
In a separate incident, a mother of two told AFP on Tuesday she had been fined on the beach in the resort of Cannes wearing leggings, a tunic and a headscarf.
Her ticket, seen by AFP, read that she was not wearing “an outfit respecting good morals and secularism”.
“I was sitting on a beach with my family. I was wearing a classic headscarf. I had no intention of swimming,” said the 34-year-old who gave only her first name, Siam.
A witness to the scene, Mathilde Cousin, confirmed the incident.
“The saddest thing was that people were shouting ‘go home’, some were applauding the police. Her daughter was crying,” she said.
One of the world’s most secular countries, France strongly separates religion and public life.
With reporting by © – AFP 2016
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