Thirteen French mayors – including the mayor of Nice – have just enacted decrees banning a full-covering women’s bathing suit – often called a burkini – on the beaches of the Mediterranean coast municipalities, citing the possibility of public disorder.
The burkini is an Australian registered trademark. It is a lighter version of the very covering bathing attire imposed on women by a restrictive interpretation of texts by certain Islamist currents.
Burkini, niqab, burka, etc. are all signs of allegiance – even forced obedience to a standard imposed by a new political-religious and patriarchal order.
In the eyes of EELV elected representatives and activists, these garments are as many challenges to women’s free will and their dignity as human beings. Being the attire of the “virtuous woman,” they de facto label other women as indecent.
Should we therefore legislate on this matter, especially concerning public spaces like beaches, and thus participate in Islamophobic and security-driven escalation? The reactions reported in the public spaces of Nice clearly show that we are in a worrying xenophobic climate following the July 14 attack.
Twice, for two different beaches, administrative court judges have just confirmed the validity of the ban. The grounds for the second judgment are particularly “political,” citing among other things “the expression of an identity claim.”
This media and judicial inflation seems disproportionate given the major crises shaking the world. Let’s relegate the burkini and its variants to their place as clothing accessories, albeit with connotations, and quickly abandon these liberty-restricting and targeted decrees.
Only a determined policy against social exclusion, uncompromising secular education against racism, and the promotion of genuine gender equality can avoid or relativize these ostentatious behaviors in the long run.
Marie-Luz Nicaise-Lanquar, spokesperson for EE-LV
