The day after the Normandy church attack, the mayor of the French Riviera town of Cannes, from Sarkozy’s rightwing Les Républicains party, decided to ban burkinis from public beaches in the name of public order and French secularism. Photograph: SIPA/REX/ShutterstockThe Cannes burkini ban only became public in recent days and immediately a handful of other seaside towns across the country followed suit. Burkinis are not a common sight on French beaches, just as niqabs were extremely rare in France when Sarkozy banned themin 2011. Jean Baubérot, a historian and sociologist of French secularism, told France Inter radio the burkini bans seemed “extremely irrational”. The question remains as to whether the decrees banning burkinis, which mayors can issue for only a limited period, conform with French law.

Source: The Guardian August 17, 2016 14:44 UTC