The city of Grenoble has taken on the government over whether burkinis should be allowed in swimming pools. The case will now be fought in the country’s highest court
The burkini has been a point of controversy in France since 2016. Representational image/AFP
The burkini – a swimsuit that covers the whole body save for the face – is at the centre of a political row between the French city of Grenoble and the State. The city, which relaxed the rule on swimwear, allowing burkinis, in outdoor pools, has now dragged the government to the country’s highest administrative court.
How the controversy started
In May, Grenoble authorised the wearing of the “burkini” in state-run swimming pools, reigniting one of France’s most contentious debates on the swimsuit mostly donned by Muslim women. Mayor Eric Piolle, one of the country’s highest-profile Green politicians who leads a broad left-wing coalition at the city council, had championed the move.
While the rules approved by the municipal council did not name the burkini, they allowed people to wear any kind of swimsuit, including letting men or women fully cover their body or permitting women to go topless in the same way as men can.
Why has Grenoble run into trouble?
The state of France took legal action against the city at the foot of the French Alps.
France’s interior minister G?rald Darmanin had opposed allowing the burkini in municipal pools, calling it an “unacceptable provocation”. According to him, it was against the French rules of secularism.
Following the government’s instruction, the state governor of the Is?re region, in southeast France, asked a local court to suspend the new pool rules from coming into effect on 1 June. The court obliged with a ruling on Wednesday, saying that it “seriously violated the principle of neutrality in public service”.
Part bikini, part all-covering burqa, the burqini swimsuit has once again sparked controversy in France. Representational image/AFP
What are burkinis banned in France?
Laws in France are built on a strict separation of religion and state, intended to foster equality for all private beliefs. This requires the state to be neutral in terms of religion. Even state officials are not allowed to wear religious symbols to work.
The opposition to the burkini goes back to 2016 when several municipalities banned it on beaches for violating the law separating religion and state. It was ruled then that the anti-burkini decrees were “a serious and manifestly illegal attack on fundamental freedoms”, including the right to move around in public and the freedom of conscience.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has condemned the burkini as “clothing of Islamist propaganda”.
However, Grenoble” mayor argues that the laws should not stop them from dressing as they wish while using public services like swimming pools.
What next for the city?
The fight has now reached the Council of State, the country’s highest court which has previously ruled against a burkini ban elsewhere in France.
The case back then was on a ban imposed in the city of Villeneuve-Loubet on the Mediterranean coast. The ban “seriously and clearly illegally breached fundamental freedoms” the court had said in August 2016.
The ban was brought to the court’s attention by a human rights group, the Human Rights League and an anti-Islamophobia association CCIF.
The ruling in the case of Grenoble is due in the coming days.
With inputs from agencies
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