Top French court to rule on legality of burkini bans

But on Friday, the highest administrative court in France said the burkini ban in Villeneuve-Loubet, one of the towns that has banned it, “seriously and clearly illegally breached fundamental freedoms”.

While rulings by the Council of State do set precedents, several mayors said they would not suspend their own bans and rights groups said they would bring them to courts, meaning more lawsuits are expected.

A spokesperson for Amnesty International said the court’s ruling “has drawn an important line in the sand” and that “French authorities must now drop the pretence that these measures do anything to protect the rights of women”.

Nice town hall said it would “continue to fine” women wearing the burkini and the far-right mayor of Frejus, David Rachline, insisted his ban was “still valid”, telling AFP there was “no legal procedure” against his ruling.

Marwan Muhammad, the director of the Collective Against Islamophobia in France, called the high court’s decision a “Pyrrhic victory”.

When a photograph emerged showing armed police forcing a woman at a Nice beach to remove some clothing because of a controversial burkini ban this week, it was met by some with outrage.

While Valls argued that burkinis oppress women, two ministers in his cabinet, Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem and Health Minister Marisol Touraine, have said banning burkinis is not a good option.

“I refuse to let the burkini impose itself in French beaches and swimming pools.there must be a law to ban it throughout the Republic’s territory”, he said.

Lawyer Patrice Spinosi, representing the Human Rights League, told reporters that other mayors who have banned burkinis must conform to Friday’s decision regarding the town of Villeneuve-Loubet.

President Francois Hollande said on Thursday that life in France “supposes that everyone sticks to the rules and that there is neither provocation nor stigmatisation”.

She’s also been inundated with correspondence expressing support and gratitude for the garment, which covers a woman’s head and body and provides protection from the sun.

He added: “I don’t think anyone should tell women what they can and can’t wear”.

Paris-Burkini has officially won over its battle against a French ban, which had received its fair share of heated controversy.

And much like the recent burkini bans, opinion in the country is divided between those who see the laws as an infringement on religious freedom, and those who view the Islamic dress as inconsistent with France’s rigorously enforced secularism. The court finding that there was no such risk in the case before it, suspended the ban.