Woman clearly waiting for a hairy French man to “liberate” her by forcibly removing her clothing.
I know this is going to come as a big disappointment to those who think saying RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISM is, like, an anti-terrorism policy, but it turns out that forcing women to strip down at the beach is still not something we’re going to do in civilized countries.
The so-called “Burkini Ban” in France was a stupid, bigoted, and fearful idea. Amazingly, it encapsulated the worst impulses from both the right (women are creatures who can be told what to wear) and the left (enlightened individuals know what’s best for women even if women don’t know it for themselves). The ban was a perfect storm of incorrect views about Muslim women, and hysterical fears about security, with a little bit of French cultural elitism thrown in for good measure. I’d say it was the worst policy of 2016 if Britain hadn’t decided to abandon Europe because of Polish people, Turkey hadn’t staged a fake coup, and the Republicans weren’t proposing building a 2,000-mile wall that wouldn’t even keep out a determined Mongolian raider.
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But the Burkini Ban might be on the way out. A French Court just said, “Zut! Ceci idée est très imbecile!”
Well, at least that’s how I would have summarized the Conseil d’Etat ruling, if I were still in high school French. From The Independent:
France’s highest administrative court has ruled that “burkini bans” being enforced on the country’s beaches are illegal and a violation of fundamental liberties…
In their ruling, three senior judges said the ban “dealt a grave and clearly illegal blow to fundamental liberties such as the freedom of movement, freedom of conscience and personal liberty.”
They found that no evidence produced in favour of the prohibition proved a risk to public order was being caused by “the outfits worn by some people to go swimming”.
The ruling only suspends the law in the city of Villeneuve-Loubet. Other French towns and resorts have similar bans, and because the West is currently in a state of rampant Islamophobia, we can expect the popularly elected mayors of these towns to fight to the last for their right to tell women to take off their clothes.
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But it’s a start, and a clear signal that these laws are incompatible with any society founded on liberty and personal freedom.
That these laws exist is the clearest sign that the terrorists are winning. But as long as courts are willing and empower to constrain the most reactionary and bigoted impulses of popular governments, the battle has not been lost.
Burkini ban suspended: French court declares rule forbidding swimwear worn by Muslim women ‘clearly illegal’ [Independent]
Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He knows that if authorities can force Muslim women to wear less at the beach, it won’t be long before they force him to wear more.