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Rabat – Less than ten days after the French city of Grenoble officially allowed women to wear burkinis in public swimming pools, the city’s administrative court suspended the decision, arguing that it violates “the principle of neutrality in public service.”
France’s Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin took to Twitter on Tuesday evening to commend the ruling against the new law calling it “excellent news.” “Following our appeal, the administrative court suspends the deliberation of the town hall of #Grenoble authorizing the “burkini” in municipal swimming pools thanks to the tools of the separatism law wanted by @EmmanuelMacron,” he said.
On May 16, Grenoble Mayor Eric Piolle announced on Twitter that the city council “has adopted the new internal rules for municipal pools. We are lifting clothing bans: only the rules of hygiene and safety count.” The decision meant that women could swim wearing the burkini or topless in the city’s public pools.
In spite of political opposition, mainly led by Damanin, Grenoble’s municipality council had initially approved the law allowing burkinis in swimming pools during a meeting. The new measure received 29 votes in favor, 27 votes against, and two abstentions.
Following the decision, Darmanin, who is a national politician with no stake in Grenoble’s affairs, vowed to challenge the new municipal law in court calling it an “unacceptable community provocation.”
The sudden escalation by a national politician in a municipal affair is part of a larger Islamophobic trend in French politics, where politicians attempt to out-do each other in populist rage against France’s Islamic minority population.
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Before delivering the ruling on the evening of May 16, the council held a meeting earlier that day where the judges heard arguments from both sides. In their judgment, allowing burkinis in public goes against France’s undefined values of secularism that separate religion from state institutions.
The city of Grenoble, however, has appealed the decision and the case will now go to the Conseil d’Etat, France’s highest administrative court.
The burkini, an attire worn by some Muslim women to cover their bodies and hair while swimming, has been a controversial topic in France in recent years. Many activists attributed the ban to the country’s deeply-rooted Islamophobia which has become a political tool eagerly exploited by national politicians.
Many European countries allow burkinis on beaches and public swimming pools. In most countries, the secular concept of separation between religion and state actually protects the wearing of religious attire such as the burkini. Banning the garment means blocking one segment of the public from a public facility based on their religion, which violates the separation of religion and state.
In spite of being home to the largest Muslim population in the continent, France was the first European country to ban burkinis in 2011.
