France's Highest Court To Decide On Reversing Burkini Ban

A woman wearing a burkini at the "Wear what you want beach party" protesting the French ban on burkinis outside the French Embassy in London on August 25.

Justin Tallis / AFP / Getty Images

France's highest administrative court, Conseil d'État, will decide Friday whether to reverse the burkini ban imposed in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet near Nice.

At a hearing Thursday, the court heard a challenge — brought by the Human Rights League of France (LdH) — to the town's decision to impose the ban on burkinis. The full-body swimsuits with hoods, popular with Muslim women, have been at the center of a fierce religious and political debate in the country.

Mayors of several French towns, including Cannes, have banned the burkini in recent weeks. In his ruling, David Lisnard, the Cannes mayor, said, "Beachwear which ostentatiously displays religious affiliation, when France and places of worship are currently the target of terrorist attacks, is liable to create risks of disrupting public order which it is necessary to prevent.”

Tensions increased after photos and videos of several incidents showing police fining Muslim women wearing headscarves surfaced.

Villeneuve-Loubet was one of the first of nearly 30 towns to ban the burkini, Agence France-Presse reported.

Patrice Spinosi, a lawyer for the French rights group opposing the ban, argued that there was no evidence that the burkini had disrupted public order in the past, according to reporters who live-tweeted the hearing.

"Forbidding a person to wear a garment that expresses their religion is an infringement on their liberties," he said.

Spinosi said that the concept of "laïcité" — the French principle of state secularism — did not apply to public spaces.

"The concept of equality of the sexes cannot be used against a woman’s right to express her religion or not," he said, adding that the "law cannot give in to the demands of fear."

Sefen Guez Guez, a lawyer for the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), which also challenged the ban, told the court that the decree was discriminatory as "the only people who are being fined are Muslim women." Guez Guez said the ban was a violation of fundamental rights and that the towns which implemented it were the ones disrupting public order.

Citing the "climate of absolute tension" in the region since the terror attack in Nice, a lawyer for the town of Villeneuve-Loubet argued that the mayors who issued the bans were trying to prevent the situation from worsening. He said that "the founding principle" behind the ban was public order and not secularism.

"Women may feel assaulted, but the decrees are justified by the particular situation of the city," he said.

The judge asked each party to bring factual evidence of any potential disruption of public disorder caused by the burkini. The decision on whether to reverse to ban will be announced on Friday at 3 p.m. local time.