The ban has been overturned by the highest court in
France – but when an Australian woman tried to wear her burkini on the beach in
France she was hounded away.
Zeynab Alshelh, aged 23, travelled to the French Riviera
earlier this month to protest the law which tells women they can’t wear the
full body swimsuit.
She and her mother both donned the burkini and walked to
Villeneuve-Loubet, where the ban has been overturned.
They sat down under a parasol to enjoy the sun – but
minutes after they arrived they say others on the beach took issue with the
swimsuit that has divided a nation.
They say they were not prepared for the hostility that
resulted, with one man threatening to call the authorities if they didn’t
leave.
‘We were threatened by locals to leave the beach and if
we didn’t they were going to call the police. They weren’t happy with us being
there, even though it was on the beach that the burkini ban was overturned but
the locals were not happy,’ Zeynah told Channel Seven’s program Sunday Night.
She said the controversy itself had shocked her, as the
costume had been designed in Australia as a way of helping Muslim women
integrate into the country’s beach culture.
‘It starts off at the beach and God knows where it
ends,’ Zeynab said. ‘It’s hard to be proud of a country who rejects you and
whose laws allow the general public to discriminate against you.
‘It’s absurd, it’s dangerous, it is a fight against
diversity.’
As the news broke, France’s Far Right Front National
were holding their annual gathering in the Riviera town of Frejus.
Lionel Tivoli, who runs the party’s French Riviera
branch described the burkini as ‘a symbol of radicalisation.
‘It is enslavement and if the person will create the
burkini for liberation of women she makes mistake.’
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