The decision by the mayors to continue imposing the ban in defiance of the court ruling not only heralds a looming bitter legal battle, but has also strengthened the international debate and outrage about privacy, women’s right to choice and freedom of expression.
“After bans on full-face veils, head scarves in schools and rules about students’ skirt lengths, France’s perennial problem with Muslim women’s attire has taken its most farcical turn yet with a new controversy over the ‘burkini,’ body-covering swimwear whose name is an amalgam of burqa and bikini,” said the New York Times in a scathing editorial. “Many French mayors have banned the burkini, calling it, variously, a threat to public order, hygiene, water safety and morality, tantamount to a new weapon of war against the French republic.”
Detailing the political perspective behind the move, the paper said: “This hysteria threatens to further stigmatize and marginalize France’s Muslims at a time when the country is listing to the Islamophobic right in the wake of a series of horrific terrorist attacks. And with presidential elections scheduled for next spring and the right-wing National Front’s popularity on the rise, French officials and politicians have leapt to support the mayors.”
The USA Today, by contrast, took a hardline view on the issue, in support of the ban, and unwilling to spare even the French judiciary. “The climate in France is one of fear, tension and aggression. Politicians have been unceasing in their calls for the country to stay united, and the French have shown admirable calm despite the mayhem. Yet the burkini is not a symbol of unity; it is one of divisiveness, a brazen renunciation of the secularism that has underpinned France for the past 100 years. By wearing a burkini, women are purposefully setting themselves apart from the rest of French society – a point beyond the grasp of France’s highest court, which overturned the burkini ban Friday,” the paper said.
A similar stance was adopted by the French newspaper L’Union, which examined the fierce standoff over the burkini and said in an editorial: “The Islamic swimsuit is no longer just about a piece of cloth and has become a symbol of the intention by a tiny fraction to oppose any western cultural re-appropriation.” The paper went on to argue that while France tries to showcase the integration of its citizens, they lean against it – it cited the rise of burkini sales as evidence of the “provocation” taking place.
The Guardian meanwhile threw its full weight in support of those protesting the burkini ban. “So this is what liberation looks like: four armed officers ordering a woman to undress in public,” the paper said in a caustic reference to last week’s incident. “France’s prime minister, Manuel Valls, has backed the mayors ordering ‘burkini bans’ on their beaches by arguing, among other things, that the garment is part of the enslavement of women. The photos from Nice, in which a Muslim woman removes her tunic under duress, show that claim of upholding women’s rights to be as erroneous as the others advanced in support of the measures – variously, that covering up for religious reasons while at the seaside or while swimming is unhygienic, or a “provocation”, or contrary to French values. The images are preposterous as well as ugly, highlighting the profound mismatch between stated ideals and their consequence; and an imagined threat to the national community and the means used to subdue it, with multiple gun-toting policemen required to confront one sunbathing woman,” it said. “Which French values are being defended is unclear. Not liberation; nor equality; nor fraternity – since women who wish to wear the burkini (or, it seems, the hijab and loose-fitting clothes) are confronted with a choice between dressing as they feel fit or removing themselves from a public space.”
