Photo © 2016 Reuters
A woman is confronted by state officials in a public place and forced to change her clothing, while another is fined for failing to wear “an outfit respecting good morals and secularism." Unbelievable in a country like France? No, it happened on French Riviera beaches just this week.
These incidents follow a series of municipal decrees de facto banning burkinis, clothing designed to allow Muslim women to go to go to the beach and swim, and other skin-concealing outfits, in about 30 French towns.
The bans were adopted in the aftermath recent horrific terror attacks in France. But what in fact these bans serve to do is create a dangerous and absurd confusion between how some Muslim women choose to dress and the despicable terrorist attacks that French people, of all religions, have suffered.
But the burkini bans are more than just unfair and discriminatory; inflaming tensions between communities is also dangerous. Besides, during a time of national emergency, surely French police have better things to do than humiliate women on the country’s beaches.
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