Spotlight: French Burkini ban ignites political dabate, raises fear of stigmatization

The ban of the burkini -- Muslim swimwear which covers the whole body -- from French beaches has sparked controversy in France amongst those both for and against the recently- adopted measure.

The political debate in recent weeks has set off a deluge of commentary that even showed rifts in the ruling Socialist Party camp months ahead of the 2017 presidential election.

In mid-August, mayors of coastal towns including Cannes, Villeneuve-Loubet and Sisco on the island of Corsica, and Le Touquet imposed the ban on wearing the burkini which leaves only the face, hands and feet uncovered. The ban came into effect after a brawl between Muslim families and a group of young Corsicans in Sisco.

The controversy was raised after photographs posted on social media showed armed policemen ordering a Muslim woman on a beach in the Riviera city of Nice to remove her clothes.

Police have also fined a woman on a beach in Cannes for being fully clothed and wearing a headscarf.

At a meeting of European Socialist Party leaders in north central France, French President Francois Hollande called on "everyone to respect rules without provocation, without stigmatization."

Speaking to the local broadcaster Europe1, Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said the "proliferation of anti-burkini is not welcomed," stressing such a decree "fuels stereotypes and discriminates against a community."

"There is no link between the terror attacks of Daesch and the clothing a woman wears on the beach," she said.

To health minister Marisol Touraine, "secularism is not refusing religion. It is a guarantee of individual and collective freedom. It can not and must not become the spearhead of a dangerous stigma for the cohesion of our country," she wrote on Twitter.

Rebuffing critics over the marginalization of the Muslim community, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls defended the burkini ban and considered it useful "to fight against radical Islam, against these religious symbols which are filtering into public spaces."

"For me the burkini is a symbol of the enslavement of women," he told BFMTV news channel.

In the right camp, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy told Le Figaro magazine "the burkini is a political act, a militant act, a provocation. Women who wear it are testing the republic."

At an emergency meeting with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, Anouar Kbibech, the head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) on Wednesday expressed his "deep emotion and concern over the direction the public debate is taking."

"In this post-attack context, we need tolerance and appeasement more than ever and to be far from any stigmatization," Kbibech said.

The French Human Rights League is appealing the decision by the southern town of Villeneuve-Loubet to ban the burkini. On Friday, the country's highest administrative court will decide whether to maintain or suspend the decree. Endit