CEN - GETTY The ruling was made after a girl refused to take part in a swimming class

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The ruling was made after an 11-year-old girl refused to take part in a swimming class - claiming even a burkini violated strict Islamic dress codes for women. At the lower courts, the youngster argued that the full-body swimsuit designed for Muslim woman still showed off her figure.

Her furious parents took the complaint even higher and appeared before the European Court of Human Rights - but their appeal was ultimately rejected and their children were told they must participate in the mixed-gender lessons. Now the couple have vowed their children will continue to boycott the classes - and have even looked at setting up their own private school in opposition to the court ruling.

GETTY The girl said the burkini still reveals her figure

The long-running court case was headed by Swiss-Turkish Muslim dad Aziz Osmanoglu, who was fined £1,140 in July 2010 after refusing to allow his daughters to take part in the lessons. He claimed that forcing his two pre-pubescent girls - who were born in 1999 and 2001 - to attend the classes violated their faith. Authorities in Basel had tried to accommodate their beliefs through a number of compromises, including letting girls use a separate changing room and allowing them to wear the full-body burkini swimsuit - but the girl’s parents pushed forward with their complaint.

Burkini in pictures Mon, February 13, 2017 Photographs have emerged of armed French police confronting a woman on a beach and making her remove some of her clothing as part of a controversial ban on the burkini. We take a look at the burkini through news pictures Play slideshow Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock 1 of 12 A model wearing a 'burkini' on ITV 'This Morning'. Images of French armed police officers ordering a Muslim woman to remove her 'burkini' on a packed Nice beach has further fuelled a debate over the banning of the full-body Islamic swimsuit

However judges ruled in favour of the Swiss authorities' decision, concluding the classes were vital to the children's "successful integration" into society and part of a "full school curriculum". Yet despite the ruling, Mr Osmanoglu has refused to give up and has pledged to find another way to "adhere to their faith". He has also continued to refuse to send his two daughters to the mixed swimming lessons in a move that has been supported by the Basel Muslim Commission.

CEN The parents were fined £1,140 in July 2010

CEN Switzerland won the case brought by Swiss-Turkish Muslim dad Aziz Osmanoglu

Serhad Karatekin, media representative of the Commission, said: "We know that individual clubs have set themselves the goal of opening up a Muslim private school now." Johannes Czwalina, a theologian who came to fame for paying the legal bills of numerous fundamentalist Muslims, said he would welcome a Muslim private school and would do all he can to help one open.