French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has said he will seek to change a decision adopted by the city of Grenoble that would allow women to wear the burkini in municipal swimming pools.
Amid a debate in France over the “burkini” that some Muslim women wear to cover their bodies and hair while swimming, Darmanan described the change as an “unacceptable provocation…contradicting our values” and added that he had demanded a legal challenge to the new regulations.
The Alpine city of Grenoble changed the rules for using public swimming pools on Monday to allow all kinds of swimwear, not just the traditional women’s swimwear and men’s shorts.
Under a new law to combat “extremism” passed by parliament in 2021, the government can appeal decisions it suspects undermine France’s strict secular traditions aimed at separating religions from the state.
Critics of the “burkini” see it as a symbol of the spread of radical Islam.
Grenoble mayor Eric Peul, one of the country’s most prominent green politicians who leads a broad left-wing coalition, defended the municipality’s move, saying: “All we want is for men and women to be able to wear whatever they want.”
Grenoble is not the first French city to change its rules. The northwestern city of Rennes quietly updated its pool regulations in 2019 to allow burkinis and other types of swimwear.