Five French women have been fined and banned from entering the Grenoble swimming pool for wearing “burkinis” on Wednesday.
Grenoble city hall said that the five activists are now banned from entering the facility for two months for blocking access to the pool.
The women were affiliated with the Citizen Alliance group, which advocates for removing the ban of full-body bathing suits.
French Police said that the women caused the pool to be evacuated at the request of officials.
“Burkinis”, a women’s Islamic swimsuit that covers most of the body, have been outlawed in many French cities since 2016, causing fanfare among human rights organizations and those calling for maintaining the country’s secular values.
Activists slammed the ban as rooting Islamophobia in the country.
The Citizen’s Alliance said that the regulation is “discriminatory” and that people should choose their clothes freely. The organization vowed to keep fighting for people’s rights in the country.
The Citizen’s Alliance stated on Twitter that seven of its activists “demand the right to choose their swimming costume: full coverage, long-sleeved, short-sleeved or even topless”.
In June 2019, several girls protested the ban by carrying out an identical motion in the identical pool in Grenoble in an “act of civil disobedience”.
Piolle, the town’s mayor, sent a letter to the French Prime Minister a year ago, requesting the federal government determine whether to ban burkinis nationwide or not.
