No Liberty, No Equality, No Fraternity: The Death of French Secularism
France’s secularism was meant to ensure basic freedom for all creeds. Using it to ban burkinis shows how the law has been perverted
In Nice, less than a month after the Bastille Day attack on the Promenade des Anglais, which killed 86 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group, something quite odd happened. The city mayor, like mayors in many other towns on the French Riviera, issued an order to ban the wearing of burkinis. This decree targets a piece of non-revealing swimwear worn by some Muslim women when they go to the beach.
The Organisation Against Islamophobia in France and the Human Rights League have both deemed this decree to be discriminatory and oppressive, and have brought a case before the Administrative Court of Nice to have it annulled.
They did not succeed in this attempt, and the Administrative Court decided to ban, once again, the burkini from the beach at Cannes and Villeneuve-Loubet, on 13 August and 22 August respectively, explaining that “it was necessary, logical and commensurate” given the post-attack climate prevailing in the region.
The two human rights organisations decided to bring their case before the French Council of State, the ultimate authority on administrative law cases. On 25 August, the council revoked the decree in Villeneuve-Loubet, declaring that the "contentious and illegal decree severely undermined fundamental freedoms”.
