France to challenge Grenoble's move to allow burkinis in public pools

Source: The Guardian

France to challenge Grenoble’s move to allow burkinis in public pools

Town council votes to allow bathers to wear full-body swimsuit in pools, but government threatens to block move

Kim Willsher in Paris
Wed 18 May 2022 13.04 BST
First published on Wed 18 May 2022 12.44 BST

The French government is to challenge a town council decision to allow bathers to wear the burkini – a full-body swimsuit – in its pools.

The interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said the move was an “unacceptable provocation” that was against the values of the secular republic and announced he would seek to block it.

Grenoble town council’s decision to loosen the strict rules of swimwear to allow people to dress “how they like” at outdoor municipal pools, including wearing burkinis or swimming topless, has reopened the contentious debate over the place of religious symbols and clothing in France just weeks from a legislative election.

Critics see the body covering garment as a symbol of creeping Islamism and an attack on France’s secular tradition while some feminists would like a complete ban on it, seeing the garment as a symbol of female oppression.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/18/france-to-challenge-grenobles-move-to-allow-burkini-in-public-pools