France burkini ban challenged in country’s top court

Marine Le Pen has called the burkini the ‘clothing of Islamist propaganda’

Women wearing burkinis (EPA)

France’s top court is set to deliver a ruling on the controversial burkini ban after hearing an appeal by the city of Grenoble to allow the bathing suit in public pools.

Grenoble formally allowed women to wear the full-length swimwear in state pools in May, 10 years after a local ban on the burkini was introduced in several French cities. But not without a grim warning from the interior minister that he would work to block the move.

The decision, said minister Gérald Darmanin, was an “unacceptable community provocation, contrary to our values” and went against French laws on secularism. Darmanin was the minister who said Liverpool fans posed a public disorder threat after last month’s chaos at the Champions League final in Paris.