A French mayor is threatening to ban a private “burkini party” at an indoor swimming pool in Provence after describing it as a “provocation”.
Michel Amiel, the mayor of Les Pennes-Mirabeau, said he was “shocked and angry” after learning of the event.
Smile 13, a “social, cultural, sport and professional” association for women and children, booked the Speed Water Park at Pennes-Mirabeau, near Marseille, for 10 September.
Its poster states it will be exclusively for women and children, boys under 10 years old, and that an “exceptional” authorisation has been given for burkinis and swimming jilbab, normally banned in public baths. The poster asks guests not to come in bikinis.
“We’re counting on you to respect the Awra (Islamic term requiring parts of the human body to be covered) and not come in a two-piece (chest to knees must be covered). The minimum is a one-piece swimming costume with pareo [wraparound skirt] or shorts,” it reads.
Smile 13’s Facebook page explained the clothing request was made because the swimming park has “mixed” staff.
“This is communitarianism, pure and simple,” Amiel told Le Parisien, adding that he was looking at banning the event as a “threat to public order”.
Speed Water Park is a private organisation and as such is free to rent its facilities to whomever it wants.
Mélisa Thivet, Smile 13 treasurer, said she was surprised by the level of outrage the event had provoked.
“I don’t see what we’re being made to feel guilty about when we are just practising our religion. We’re in a secular country and everyone should be able to practise their belief as they see fit.”
The local MP, Valérie Boyer of Les Republicains, the centre-right opposition party, feared the event would be divisive.
“It is not an anodyne issue. The battle of the ‘veil’ is a visible sign of fundamentalists wanting to mark their territory and subjugate women,” Boyer said in a statement.
“Burka, chador, abaya, niqab, hijab … it doesn’t matter what you call them, they are a gender prison, a negation of the individual, an obstacle to equality, an obstacle to fraternity.”
