A swimming pool in Paris has refused entry to a young Muslim woman
wearing a 'burqini' - a swimsuit that covers most of the body.The ban came as French lawmakers consider whether to stop burqas - head-to-toe veils - being worn in the country.
The debate follows President
Nicolas Sarkozy saying the veils were "not welcome" in secular
France.
Officials in the
Paris suburb of Emerainville had initially let the woman swim in the pool while wearing a burqini, in July.
But, when she returned in August, they decided to enforce hygiene
rules and told her she could not swim in the garment, which resembles a
wetsuit with a built-in hood.
Pool staff "reminded her of the rules that apply in all (public)
swimming pools which forbid swimming while clothed", said Daniel
Guillaume, an official who manages pools in the area.
Le Parisien newspaper said the woman, identified only by her first
name Carole, was a French convert to Islam and was determined to
challenge the ban in court.
"Quite simply, this is segregation. I will fight to try to change
things. And, if I see that the battle is lost, I cannot rule out
leaving France," the paper quoted her as saying.
Local mayor Alain Kelyor said: "All this has nothing to do with
Islam," adding that the burqini was "not an Islamic swimsuit - that
type of suit does not exist in the Koran", the Muslim holy book.
France, home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority, has set up a
special panel to consider whether a law should be enacted to bar Muslim
women from wearing
full veils.
The country has had a long-running debate on how far it is willing
to go to accommodate Islam without undermining the tradition of
separating church and state.