French burkini bans face legal challenge as tension mounts

PARIS — France’s highest administrative authority is studying whether local bans on full-body burkini swimsuits are legal, amid growing concerns in the country and abroad about police forcing Muslim women to disrobe.

Some fear that burkini bans in several French towns, based on a strict application of French secularism policies, are worsening religious tensions.

Critics of the local decrees have said the orders are too vague, prompting local police officials to fine even women wearing the traditional Islamic headscarf and the hijab, but not burkinis.

The ruling specifically concerns a ban in the Riviera town of Villeneuve-Loubet, but the decision will be binding and set a legal precedent on the increasingly heated question of whether cities can tell Muslim women what to wear on the beach.