London: London Mayor Sadiq Khan spoke out against the banning of the burkini swimsuit in France as he headed to Paris Thursday for talks with his French counterpart.
Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital, spoke out after some 30 French towns banned the burkini, triggering a fierce debate about women’s rights and secularism.
“I don’t think anyone should tell women what they can and can’t wear. Full stop. It’s as simple as that,” he told the London Evening Standard newspaper.
“I don’t think it’s right. I’m not saying we’re perfect yet, but one of the joys of London is that we don’t simply tolerate difference, we respect it, we embrace it, and we celebrate it.”
Khan is due to hold talks with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo covering the impact of Britain’s vote in June to leave the European Union as well as trade and security.
“I’m here in Paris to make it clear that London is open — open to the world, open to trade, open for new business ventures and collaborations, open to new ideas, new talent and people,” Khan said ahead of the visit.
Meanwhile, Scotland’s police this week became the latest force in Britain to allow the hijab as an optional part of the uniform in an effort to encourage more ethnic minority recruits.
London’s Metropolitan Police gave Muslim women on duty the option of wearing the hijab in 2001.
A string of other British forces — including in central and northern England where there are large Muslim communities — also allow the headscarf.
“Like many other employers, especially in the public sector, we are working towards ensuring our service is representative of the communities we serve,” Police Scotland chief Phil Gormley said in a statement on Tuesday.
“I hope that this addition to our uniform options will contribute to making our staff mix more diverse,” he added.
Scottish police this year said only 127 of the 4,809 applications to join the force — 2.6 per cent — were from people with ethnic minority backgrounds.
Ethnic minorities, mainly originating from South Asia, account for around four per cent of Scotland’s population as a whole.
The Scottish Police Muslim Association welcomed the announcement, saying it “will encourage more females from Muslim and ethnic minority backgrounds to join Police Scotland”.
Burkinis a ‘provocation’ France’s former conservative president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has branded the full-body burkini swimsuits worn by some Muslim women a “provocation” that he says supports radicalised Islam.
A series of local town bans on burkinis in France has set off a heated debate in the strictly secular country. Sarkozy says in a TV interview Wednesday night that “we don’t imprison women behind fabric.”
As a leading opposition figure, Sarkozy announced this week that he is running for the presidency again in next spring’s election. He must first win the primaries organised by the French right in November, where he’s expected to face tough competition.
Sarkozy says if he wins, he will ban every visible religious sign in French universities.
Sarkozy, 61, is expected to campaign on a hard-line platform on immigration and security issues in a country marked by recent attacks carried out by Islamist extremists.
In the TF1 channel interview, Sarkozy insisted that Muslims in France are French people “exactly like any other ones” but, when living in the country, they must “assimilate” the French language and way of life, the French regions and the history of France.
Muslim people shouldn’t “impose their differences on the majority,” he said.
Regarding his social and economic platform, Sarkozy said he wants to set up decreasing unemployment benefits but assured at the same time that the “French social model” will remain intact if he is elected.
“Here, it’s not the United States where people end up living in a mobile home when they lose their jobs”, he said.
Recently, Sarkozy has said that, in the name of France’s secularism, he opposes pork-free options proposed by many school canteens for Muslim and Jewish children. He has also suggested that children born in France to parents staying illegally in the country shouldn’t be granted French nationality.
