French island of Corsica became the third nation to announce a ban on burqinis, following the weekend clashes allegedly sparked by a row over the full-body Islamic swimsuit. The announcement by the mayor of the village of Sisco follows similar prohibitions in the Riviera towns of Cannes and Villeneuve-Loubet.
Sisco’s Socialist mayor Ange-Pierre Vivoni had said that he want to “protect the population” after the clashes on Saturday in a cove outside his village in the north of the Mediterranean island that have left five people injured.
“I am absolutely not racist. I want to protect the population, notably my area’s Muslim population, because I think that they are the main victims of these extremist provocations.” Vivoni said his decision to ban the burqini was “not against the Muslim religion but to avoid the spread of fundamentalism.”
Women’s Rights Minister Laurence Rossignol said the burqini, which has also been a talking point at the Rio Olympics where it has been sported by several athletes, was “profoundly archaic”.
“The burqini has a goal. The goal is to hide women’s bodies to hide women, there is something profoundly archaic about it,” she told Europe 1 radio.
The Islamic dress has long been a hot-button issue in France, which was the first European country to ban full-face veil in public places in 2010.
By Premji
