PARIS — A Muslim woman garbed in a head-to-toe swimsuit — dubbed a “burqini” — may have opened a new chapter in France’s tussle between religious practices and its stern secular code.
Officials insisted Wednesday that they banned the woman’s use of the Islam-friendly suit at a local pool because of France’s pool hygiene standards — not out of hostility to overtly Muslim garb.
Under the policy, swimmers are not allowed in pools with baggy clothing, including surfer-style shorts. Only figure-hugging suits are permitted.
Nonetheless, the woman, a 35-year-old convert to Islam identified only as Carole, complained of religious discrimination after trying to go swimming in a burqini, a full-body swimsuit, in the town of Emerainville, southeast of Paris.
She was quoted as telling the daily Le Parisien newspaper that she had bought the burqini after deciding “it would allow me the pleasure of bathing without showing too much of myself, as Islam recommends. . . . For me this is nothing but segregation,” she said.
