Liberté, égalité, fraternité or Liberty, Equality, Fraternity is the national motto of French Republic.

Article IV of Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, a fundamental document of French Revolution reads like this:

Liberty consists of doing anything which does not harm others: thus, the exercise of the natural rights of each man has only those borders which assure other members of the society the enjoyment of these same rights.

Now see some recent news reports from France.

On Tuesday a 34-year-old mother of two, whose family have been French citizens for at least three generations, told French news agency AFP she had been fined on the beach in Cannes, 18 miles from Nice, for wearing leggings, a top and a headscarf. The former air-hostess from Toulouse was issued a ticket saying she was not wearing “an outfit respecting good morals and secularism”. “I was sitting on a beach with my family,” she said. “I wasn’t even planning to swim, just to dip my feet.”

This was more shocking.

Armed police have forced a woman on a beach in Nice to remove her burkini as part of a controversial new ban. The incident occurred on the beach at the city’s Promenade des Anglais, the location of the lorry attack on Bastille Day in which 84 people were killed last month. Photographs show four police officers armed with handguns, batons and pepper spray standing round the woman who was lying on the beach wearing a blue headscarf and matching top. After speaking to the woman, she appears to remove the blue long-sleeve top. She is thought to have been issued with a fine and warned about the new dress code on the beach. Several women have now been fined in France for wearing the swim wear.

It seems the French authorities believe wearing a burkini traumatise others while banning it do not infringe on the right of Liberty enshrined as the motto of their republic.

I feel any woman, whatever be the religion, born and brought up in South Asia, may feel more comfortable in a burkini than a bikini. Is it not better to allow the person concerned to choose their attire ?

Imposition of dress code by religion has to be defeated. But State doing the same will not help that cause.

France is shamefully violating the very same ideals on which the French nation was established.

France is walking backwards by imposing dress codes.

Like this: Like Loading...