Corsica court upholds burkini ban

A court in Bastia on the northern tip of Corsica ruled on Tuesday that a burkini ban, suspended last month by France's highest administrative court, should be upheld.

The decision follows a confrontation last month between Moroccans and local residents in the coastal municipality of Sisco. The violence was reportedly sparked when someone took a photograph of a woman swimming in the sea wearing a veil. More than 100 police officers had to intervene to break up the fight.

In light of the clashes, Sisco mayor Ange-Pierre Vivoni introduced a ban on the full-body swimsuit. Some 29 other local authorities also implemented a burkini ban. Despite the controversy, however, the full-body swimsuits remain a rare sight in France and are worn by a relatively small number of Muslim women.

Days after the ban was rolled out, France's Council of State ruled that the measure was permitted only if wearing the full-body swimsuit was likely to cause a public disturbance.

Dismissing a challenge from the Human Rights League on Tuesday, the judge in Bastia said the "presence of a woman wearing a swimming costume of the type targeted [by the ban] on a beach in Sisco ... could cause risks to public order which it is the town hall's duty to prevent."

Sisco's mayor said the ruling was "a relief for me and local people," adding that he brought in the ban because he "risked having deaths on my hands."

Tuesday's ruling can still be appealed to the top court.

Secular controversy

Intercommunal tensions have been simmering in several parts of France in recent months, particularly in the southern coastal regions. Relations deteriorated rapidly following a jihadist attack in Nice on July 14, in which 86 people were killed by a truck driver.

As recently as Monday, two Muslim mothers wearing headscarves were prevented by two other parents from entering a nursery school in Bonifacio, southern Corsica.

According to local prosecutor Eric Bouillard, the two men who stopped the women "thought it wasn't right that their children weren't allowed to wear emblems of their religion at school and yet these women could enter with their veils."

France has a long history of secularism, but its current regime is based on a 1905 law which separates the state from religion. It was the first European country to ban the Islamic face veil in public in 2010 - six years after outlawing the headscarf and other conspicuous religious symbols in state schools. It is not illegal, however, to wear a headscarf in public.

ksb/jm (AFP, AP)