{"id":2174,"date":"2016-08-30T13:38:40","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T13:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/?p=2174"},"modified":"2016-08-30T13:38:40","modified_gmt":"2016-08-30T13:38:40","slug":"un-hails-suspension-of-frances-burkini-ban-slams-stigmatisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/2016\/08\/30\/un-hails-suspension-of-frances-burkini-ban-slams-stigmatisation\/","title":{"rendered":"UN hails suspension of France&#8217;s burkini ban, slams &#8216;stigmatisation&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The UN on Tuesday welcomed a decision by France&#8217;s highest administrative court to suspend a controversial ban on burkini swimwear, warning that the ban had fuelled religious intolerance and stigmatisation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-quote fb_iframe_widget\">&#8220;These decrees do not improve the security situation but rather fuel religious intolerance and the stigmatisation of Muslims in France, especially women,&#8221; Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN rights office, told reporters.<br \/>\n&#8220;Dress codes such as the anti-burkini decrees disproportionately affect women and girls, undermining their autonomy by denying them the ability to make independent decisions about how to dress, and clearly discriminate against them,&#8221; he said.<br \/>\nHe also decried that &#8220;the manner in which the anti-burkini decrees have been implemented in some French resorts has been humiliating and degrading.&#8221;<br \/>\nAround 30 coastal resorts have recently banned women from wearing the full-body swimwear on their beaches, although France&#8217;s highest administrative court on Friday overturned the measure in one town, in a ruling likely to set a legal precedent which will affect the others.<br \/>\nThe bans come in the wake of a string of Islamist attacks to hit France over the past 18 months, which have raised questions over security failures and resulted in a spike in Islamophobia.<br \/>\nColville said the UN rights office welcomed the ruling affecting the seaside town of Villeneuve-Loubet, urging authorities in other French seaside towns and resorts that had adopted similar bans &#8220;to repeal them immediately.&#8221;<br \/>\nHe stressed that the bans would do nothing to make people safer.<br \/>\n&#8220;Clearly, individuals wearing burkinis, or any other form of clothing for that matter, cannot be blamed for the violent or hostile reactions of others,&#8221; he said.<br \/>\nHe warned that &#8220;by stimulating polarisation between communities, these clothing bans have only succeeded in increasing tensions &#8230; (and may) undermine the effort to fight and prevent violent extremism.&#8221;<br \/>\nColville pointed out that according to international human rights standards, &#8220;limitations on manifestations of religion or belief, including choice of clothing, are only permitted in very limited circumstances, including public safety, public order, and public health or morals.&#8221;<br \/>\nSuch measures, he said, &#8220;must be appropriate, necessary, and proportionate.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Gender equality cannot be achieved by restricting individual freedoms including by policing what individual women choose to wear,&#8221; he said.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The UN on Tuesday welcomed a decision by France&rsquo;s highest administrative court to suspend a controversial ban on burkini swimwear, warning that the ban had fuelled religious intolerance and stigmatisation. &ldquo;These decrees do not improve the security situation but rather fuel religious intolerance and the stigmatisation of Muslims in France, especially women,&rdquo; Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN rights office, told reporters. &ldquo;Dress codes such as the anti-burkini decrees disproportionately affect women and girls, undermining their autonomy by denying them the ability to make independent decisions about how to dress,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2176,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174\/revisions\/2176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}