The ban on French burkinis

There's trouble at the pool in Paris, said Peter Allen in This is London. A Muslim convert named Carole—who doesn't want her last name published—has been told she can't swim in a public pool because her three-piece "burkini" is "inappropriate." Pool staff said the head-to-toe swimsuit violates a rule against swimming clothed, but Carole said she's the victim of political discrimination.

This is the "summer episode in the saga of France versus Muslim dress," said Charles Bremner in the London Times. The official line is that kicking Carole out of the pool was just a matter of enforcing rules about hygiene. But French politicians have banned traditional Muslim headcoverings in schools, and are trying to curb face-covering in public, too.

The burkini incident is making an already tense situation worse, said Henry Samuel in Britain's Daily Telegraph. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has already angered Muslim groups by saying the head-to-toe burqas, or niqabs, are "not welcome" in France because they debase women. Now André Gérin, a Communist MP, is calling the burkini a "militant provocation" that should be banned. This is far from over.

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