France High Court Burkini Ban

France’s highest administrative court ruled Friday that French mayors do not have the right to ban the burkini, a swimsuit designed to cover the majority of a Muslim woman’s body.The Council of State’s ruling overrules a ban in the town of Villeneueve-Loubet, near Nice, France. Several cities around the country have banned the full-length burkini.The bans, officials say, are a response to the growing terror concerns in France.Last month, an ISIS-inspired terrorist in a truck killed more than 80 people in the seaside town of Nice. That same month, attackers in northern France stabbed an elderly priest during mass.Amnesty International Europe Director John Dalhuisen said that banning burkinis is “fueling prejudice and intolerance” and that “today’s decision has drawn an important line in the sand.”In April of 2011, France became the first European country to ban public wear of the burqa, a full-body, full-face covering garment worn by traditional Muslims from Saudi Arabia.They also banned the niqab, which is similar to the burqa but with a slit for the woman's eyes.

Burkini Ban a Divisive Issue For French Citizens

Opinion in the country is divided. Some see the burqa ban as consistent with France’s historic secularism. Others believe that it infringes on religious freedom.The French Prime Minister Manual Valls called the burkini a means of enslavement, and believes that the French state is duty-bound to emancipate Muslim women from the clutches of their religion.Some French citizens believe that the burkini, the burqa and the niqab do not “correspond to our vision of living together, particularly with regard to the equality of men and women.”France has been the target of Islamic terror for several years, beginning with the murder of Charlie Hebdo staff in 2015 and continuing with beheadings and a massive, Paris-wide terror attack in November of 2015, where ISIS-inspired men shot and bombed at various locations in the city, killing 130 and wounding 352.