France, burkini & battle of cultures

Paris, August 25 

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls defended a ban on burkinis in more than a dozen coastal towns on Thursday, saying France was locked in a “battle of cultures” and that the full-body swimsuit symbolised the enslavement of women.

Photographs of armed police ordering a Muslim woman on a beach in the Mediterranean city of Nice to partially derobe went viral on social media this week, upsetting many French Muslims and causing global consternation.

In a sign of rifts opening in the socialist government before a presidential election in 2017, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, France’s Moroccan-born education minister, cautioned the debate was fanning racist rhetoric and being used for political gains.

“We have to wage a determined fight against radical Islam, against these religious symbols which are filtering into public spaces,” Valls said.

Reiterating his stance on the issue, he said: “For me the burkini is a symbol of the enslavement of women.” France’s Conseil d’Etat, its highest administrative court, was due on Thursday to hear a request by a human rights group for the burkini ban in the Mediterranean town of Villeneuve-Loubet to be overturned. The debate over the burkini ban encapsulates the difficulties secular France faces as it grapples with a response to homegrown jihadists. — Reuters