Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – French police forced a veiled Muslim woman to get out of the water amid racist shouts of the crowd in La Plage du Prophète in Marseilles last week.
The veiled woman, who was with her family on the Marseille beach, was swimming when a group of people that were unhappy with her bathing suit urged the police to interfere and remove her from the beach.
Marseilles does not have a formal ban on the burkini, according to the police of Bouches-du-Rhône.
“There are no special measures that are taken, the police are instructed to avoid public order disturbances. That is what interventions on the beaches of Marseilles are based on,” said Police Commissioner Lawrence Nunez.
Nunez said it was a simple measure that sought to ensure that the mandatory swimwear is respected and to verify that “the dress allowed a certain ease in water to guarantee rescue.
An eyewitness told BFM that many people wanted the veiled woman to leave the beach along with her husband, mother, and children. She added, “later, there was a crowd of people, everyone has talked and expressed themselves. Finally she stayed with the support of almost everyone.
The veiled woman and her family were victims of hate speech and racist remarks, continued the eyewitness: “There were some who started saying ‘we’re fed up with these Arabs, and they started other racist remarks on the beach … it was declared racism this time!”
On Saturday French daily Le Figaro published the findings of a survey it had launched asking people if they think the burkini causes public disorder. According to the survey 75 percent the burkini causes public disorder, while 25 percent said it does not cause public disorder.
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, the French Minister of Education, Higher Education, and Research asserted on Thursday that the political exploitation of the burkini, and the proliferation of arrests encourage racist speech “in the post-attack period.”
