THE TELEGRAPH: Two Muslim women were ordered to leave a swimming pool in a French holiday village on the southwest coast for wearing body-covering "burkinis".
The women had plunged into the pool at le Port Leucate wearing full body swimsuits, including a head-covering hijab veil, but were immediately told to get out of the water.
The incident occurred less than two weeks after French MPs voted to ban body and face-covering garments, including the full Islamic veil, from public places including the street.
Under the new law, due to come into force early next year, women face a fine or community service for hiding their faces in public and those forcing women to wear the full veil risk prison.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has described the garment as "not welcome"* in the staunchly secular French republic.
In this case, the women at the Rives des Corbieres holiday camp were told to leave as they had breached the camp's rules allowing only conventional bikinis or one-piece swimsuits "for hygiene reasons". >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Thursday, July 22, 2010
*It should be declared “not welcome” here, too. But would a British politician have the gonads to make such a declaration? – © Mark
