Dear All,
The enforcement of a ban by some French mayors on the body-covering swimwear known as a ‘burkini’ has to count as the one of the most senseless and absurd episodes of modern times. The images from last month showing four armed policemen on a beach in a Villeneuve-Loubet forcing a woman in a burkini to remove her headscarf and other layers of her clothing are… well, just totally offensive.
In France, at least 30 cities and resorts are reported to have introduced rules prohibiting such full body swimwear during the summer period, even though after the outcry following the Villeneuve-Loubet incident, the French Supreme Court overturned the burkini ban.
The country’s highest administrative court ruled that such bans (created through by-laws) were "clearly illegal" and violated fundamental liberties. Yet, despite the court ruling, several mayors of French resort towns have declared they will continue to ban the burkini, with Nice Town Hall saying they will continue to fine women in this swimwear.
And the country’s so-called senior politicians have not been far behind: the French Prime Minister Manuel Valle wrote in a facebook post that burkinis were "the affirmation of political Islam in a public space", while the mayor of Villeneuve declared, "We need to decide if we want a smiley, friendly version of Sharia law on our beaches or if we want the rules of the [French] republic to be implemented".
Hmm, this made me wonder what rules of the Republic actually regulate swimwear or beach apparel. Was this perhaps something history has forgotten -- was the rallying cry of the French Revolution Liberty, Equality, Fraternity and Definitely No burkinis? I think not.
But lots of people are jumping on the burkini ban bandwagon, most notably the former French President, Nicholas Sarkozy. Last week, Sarkozy declared that if he is elected to the Presidency (the election is in April 2017), he would change the country’s constitution to ban full-body burkinis. Yes really. Because it seems women’s swimwear is now a dangerous ideological weapon and a real threat to French civilisation.
How bizarre is it that these people insist that it is okay for them to police women’s clothing in the same way that religious zealots or oppressive states such as Saudi Arabia do? Must I, or any other woman, be pressurised into wearing skimpy swimwear because anything more is deemed ‘offensive’? And, then, where will the authorities draw the line? Will a one-piece swimsuit be regarded as excessive? Or one with skirt or shorts deemed ‘fundamentalist’?
The whole debate is shockingly absurd and just plain intolerant.
Is a burkini-clad woman on a French beach really a security threat? Should police time be devoted to forcing women to take off their clothes rather than to being vigilant and looking out for possible security alerts? And how are people like Sarkozy going to decide what actually defines the French culture that burkini wearers are accused of not assimilating into? Does this culture consist of espousing values like freedom and equality and fraternity and tolerance or must it be reduced to a caricature -- that to be French you should wear a bikini, flirt, wear a beret, drink hot chocolate from a bowl, and drink red wine and eat horsemeat?
If the latter were the case then former French minister of economy, finance and industry, and now IMF head, Christine Lagarde could be accused of not being French enough since she is both a vegetarian and a teetotaller…
Vive le common sense…