Activists in Burkinis Protest Paris Pool Ban, Causing Closure

"We will swim, we will swim! Even if the racists don’t want to, we will swim!" This is the cry of protest from a handful of feminist and Muslim activists. Just over a dozen of them came to swim in a pool in Paris, dressed in the banned garment: the burkini.

With chants and shouting slogans to denounce racism, they were greeted, according to Le Figaro, with looks that were sometimes amused, sometimes outraged by the other swimmers. The group also included transgender people and men.

By initiating such a protest, the demonstrators are demanding access to the pool for "all Muslim women who wear the veil". Nargesse, 27 years old, told AFP that she is demanding the right and access to all kinds of leisure activities without being bothered by "Islamophobic barriers". For Camille, who is 18 and supports the initiative, the reasons given to ban the burkini are not valid.

The protest was quickly contained by the lifeguards and the police, who prevented it from escalating. Indeed, a man irritated by the scene showed his genitals to the activists, provoking the indignation of the swimmers. The management of the establishment, half an hour after the incident, had the pool closed, forcing the activists to withdraw. They left the premises by displaying a banner with the slogan, "Pool for all, stop Islamophobia".

In response to a similar protest in Grenoble, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe had said that the rules of public pools must be respected, and that "no religious conviction" could be taken into account to derogate from them. According to Le Figaro, government spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye had condemned "community-based associations" that try to "impose" a debate on the burkini "that has no reason to be".