BURKINI. The burkini can be worn in the public swimming pools of Grenoble from June 1, 2022. Despite the vote of the municipal council, the wearing of the burkini continues to be controversial and the opponents advocate the prohibition of the outfit in the name of secularism, wrongly .
[Mis à jour le 17 mai 2022 à 14h43] The wearing of the burkini will be authorized in the public swimming pools of Grenoble this summer. Narrowly adopted by 29 votes to 27 by the city council on the evening of Monday May 16, the project of the ecologist mayor Eric Piolle divides. From June 1, 2022, Grenoble will be the second city after Rennes to authorize swimming in a burkini. The city councilor hails a “multiple victory, both for women’s rights and then also for respect for secularism” while the opposition rails against the municipal decision. Even in the ranks of the majority of Eric Piolle, dissonant voices were heard: 13 elected officials voted against the proposal to authorize the wearing of the burkini. Councilor Amel Zenati in the lead criticizes a “backtracking” and speaks out against “the burkini [qui] is a project carried out by Islamists”, according to European 1. The elected official recognizes that feminist women defend their right to wear the veil and the burkini at the swimming pool but adds “in my opinion, feminism is not there. And then, it is not a request from the Muslim community, quite the contrary. A lot of Muslims don’t want to be in this debate.”
Those opposed to wearing the burkini all put forward religious arguments or respect for secularism, but religious neutrality has no place in public establishments whose internal regulations do not prohibit the wearing of religious symbols. But even Eric Piolle, who has widened the debate on health and safety issues, which are central to this debate, has included the religious subject: “It’s about a fight so that we stop placing taboos on the body of women, but which also concerns health, allowing everyone to protect themselves from the sun, and secularism, nothing in law prohibits the wearing of religious clothing in public places”. The rules of Grenoble’s public swimming pools are awaiting modification in accordance with the municipal decision to authorize the wearing of swimwear, including burkinis, in “fabric specifically designed for swimming […] fitted close to the body” and whose use is reserved for the swimming pool. The outfits cannot however be “longer than mid-thigh”. In addition to the wearing of burkinis, the article will authorize the monokini for users of the pool.
The burkini was already creating controversy before the project was completed, but now that the news is official, the opposition is stepping up its efforts to ban the wearing of these swimsuits which allow Muslim women to respect their modesty and the wearing of the veil. while bathing. Laurent Wauquiez, at the head of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Region, did not welcome the decision of the municipal council and announced in response on Twitter the immediate cessation of “any subsidy to the town hall of Grenoble”. At the highest level of the State, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, would have asked the prefect of Isère Laurent Prevost to seize the administrative court of Grenoble “by means of a secularism summary with a view to obtain the suspension, in addition to the referral for cancellation”. The prefect judges that “the manifest objective is to give in to communitarian demands with religious aims, seems to contravene the principle of secularism”. A surprising reproach since public services, including municipal swimming pools, are not required to respect religious neutrality as specified in the internal regulations of establishments.
The burkini, a subject of discrimination?
The mayor of Grenoble, Eric Piolle laid down the outlines of the authorization of the burkini in the swimming pools in a letter addressed to Emmanuel Macron on April 29 and in which he promises to ensure “that no internal regulations of any public equipment constitute an injunction or discrimination”. And before proceeding to the vote on May 16, the city councilor told the assembly of advisers that the objective is to put an end to the “break in equality, justified neither by hygiene nor by safety” caused by banning the burkini. The project has received the support of the Alliance Citoyenne association, which believes that “no one should be stigmatized even in the pools because of their choice of jersey”. And to add: “Muslim women have their place at the swimming pool”. A Citizen Alliance forum signed by a hundred people and published on May 11 in Mediapart defended the right for women to dress freely, including when they wish to wear the burkini in municipal swimming pools. “Freedom of dress is limited by law or regulation only in the event that the outfit would cause a disturbance to public order”, claim the signatories. And to add: “If the freedom of some ends where that of others begins, it is difficult to see how the freedom to wear a covering swimsuit would harm the freedom and pleasure of swimming of other bathers. municipal swimming pools.
The association Citizen Alliance and the mayor of Grenoble are deemed to be close, a proximity presented by Alain Carignon, municipal councilor of the opposition, as an influence, an accusation which the city councilor defended himself. The municipal councilor advances the argument of secularism to defend his position like the demonstrators who answered his call and mobilized on May 16 against the authorization of the burkini in swimming pools. “The burkini is not a simple garment, it has a political significance and has nothing to do in a swimming pool”, we could hear in front of the municipal council according to Le Figaro. This is also Marine Le Pen’s speech on RTL on May 11 when she declared: J‘would have banned the burkini in swimming pools without any difficulty, moreover it is currently prohibited in the swimming pool regulations”.
Secularism, hygiene, modesty… Is the burkini prohibited in public swimming pools?
The internal regulations make the law in the public services but according to this government document, “users of the public service have the right to express their religious beliefs within the limits of respect for their proper functioning and the imperatives of safety, health and hygiene”. No rules of procedure can therefore justify banning the burkini in the name of secularism. Only arguments on safety, hygiene and indecent exposure are retained by public swimming pools to determine the clothing authorized in the water. As such, establishments have the right to ban the burkini.
To the hygienist and security argument, the association Alliance Citoyenne opposes “independent studies [qui] have proven that the length of a swimsuit does not determine its unhygienic character or that the difficulties potentially encountered by rescuers in the event of drowning are the same as for a person wearing a bikini. municipal authorities of Rennes, a city where the burkini has been authorized since 2018 thanks to a decision by the socialist mayor Nathalie Appéré, also lean on this opinion and consider in their internal regulations that in order to respect “safety and hygiene requirements” and “preserve the quality of the bathing water”, the bathing suits must only be “in a fabric designed specifically for this use and must not have been worn before access to the swimming pool”. The text also obliges users to “take a shower with shampoo and soap” before entering the water reports France info.
As for indecent exposure, it is impossible for the argument to be used to prohibit the wearing of the burkini, the garment covering the entire body of those who wear it, from the shoulders to the ankles most of the time. On the contrary, modesty is what prohibits users from going nude, and women from being topless or wearing swimsuits that are too low-cut.
Grenoble, Rennes… Where is wearing a burkini allowed?
The burkini will be authorized in all municipal swimming pools in Grenoble from June 1, 2022. A decision taken by the city council of the city and voted by a narrow majority, 29 votes for, 27 against and 2 abstentions. The article which was adopted provides for a modification of the internal regulations of swimming pools concerning “rules of hygiene and safety”. It provides that “swimwear must be made of a fabric specifically designed for swimming, fitted close to the body, and must not have been worn before entering the pool”. “Outfits that are not close-fitting longer than mid-thigh (long, wide or flared dress or tunic and swimwear-shorts are prohibited”, adds the text, a precision which partly refers to burkinis.
If it is a pioneer in this area, the prefecture of Isère is not the first city to have authorized the wearing of the burkini in its municipal swimming pools. It was Rennes that paved the way for the burkini in 2018 thanks to a decision by the socialist mayor Nathalie Appéré. For four years, Muslim women who so wish have been able to swim in public pools while wearing bikinis. Already at the time, respect for secularism could not justify the ban on burkinis, only health and safety conditions were capable of this. The sports adviser, Yvon Léziart then explained to West France that the burkinis simply had to be “in a material, for example lycra, compatible with the practice of swimming”. He specified that “the number of women swimming with a burkini [était] in any case very weak in Rennes”.