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France's highest administrative court has upheld a ban on full-body "burkini" swimsuits in public pools, rejecting an appeal by the city of Grenoble. Last month, Grenoble authorised all swimwear, including burkinis... But the court said it could not allow "selective exceptions to the rules to satisfy religious demands". France has strict laws on which swimming costumes can be worn and the issue of religious expression in public places is divisive. French opposition to the burkini stretches as far back as 2016, when several local municipalities attempted to outlaw it on beaches for violating the country's strict separation between religion and...

France's highest administrative court has upheld a ban on full-body "burkini" swimsuits in public pools, rejecting an appeal by the city of Grenoble. Last month, Grenoble authorised all swimwear, including burkinis, sparking a legal battle with the government. Burkinis are worn largely by Muslim women as a way of preserving modesty and upholding their faith. But the court said it could not allow "selective exceptions to the rules to satisfy religious demands". The dispute went all the way to the Council of State after a local court in Grenoble suspended the ban on the grounds that it seriously undermined the...

Sports Illustrated has released its annual swimsuit issue and declared itself “proud” to present the first Muslim model to wear a hijab and “burkini” within its pages.The Somali-American model [Halima Aden] was born in Kenya at the Kakuma Refugee Camp, where she lived until the age of seven before moving to the United States. For her SI Swimsuit rookie spread, we couldn’t think of a more perfect place travel than her birth country, where she shot at Watamu Beach with photographer Yu Tsai.“I keep thinking [back] to six-year-old me who, in this same country, was in a refugee camp,” Halima said during her shoot. “So...

The 30-year-old actress, Lindsay Lohan, has published several photos of her in the Islamic swimsuit known as the Burkini. In these photos that were taken in Phuket, Thailand, last week, Lohan was spotted wearing a Burkini from head to toe before she was seen paddle boarding. According to her Instagram, Lindsay Lohan headed to Thailand for a week, after she had been in Dubai for a family visit. The 30-year-old-actress had already announced that she is studying Islam and the Quran. She stated that she has found peace in it, saying that no one can convert to a new religion...

She has been sharing swimsuit snaps from her latest sunny getaway. But Lindsay Lohan - who has recently been studying Islam - opted for a Burkini as she set out for a paddleboarding session in Phuket, Thailand last week. The two-piece ensemble covered the 30-year-old Mean Girls actress head-to-toe as she got to grips with a large board on the beach before venturing out into the water.

For the first time, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue has featured a model in full burkini and hijab. Halima Aden, a Somali immigrant who came to the U.S. when she was seven and who was born in in the African nation of Kenya, was photographed at her birth nation’s Watamu Beach by photographer Yu Tsai. “I keep thinking back to six-year-old me who, in this same country, was in a refugee camp,” Halima said. “So to grow up to live the American dream and to come back to Kenya and shoot for SI in the most beautiful parts of Kenya–I...

oundary-breaking Muslim supermodel Halima Aden has made history once again by becoming the first model to wear a hijab and burkini in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. In 2016, Aden became the first contestant in Miss Minnesota USA to wear a hijab and burkini, ultimately reaching the pageant's semi-finals. "There are so many Muslim women that feel like they don't fit society's standard of beauty," she told CNN at the time. "I just wanted to tell them it's OK to be different, being different is beautiful, too."

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that Halima Aden is the newest member of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit family, making history as the first Muslim model to wear a hijab and burkini in the magazine.

A Minnesota woman is breaking boundaries in the modeling world, becoming the first model to wear a hijab and burkini for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit. Twenty-one-year-old Halima Aden was born in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, but she grew up near St. Cloud, Minnesota. The Somali-American model made history back in 2016 for becoming the first fully-covered Muslim woman to compete in the Miss Minnesota pageant.

A Muslim woman has become the first to compete in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant while fully clothed. Halima Aden made the semifinals of the competition over the weekend while wearing a hijab. She also wore a full-body outfit called a burkini during the swimsuit competition. …

A Somali-American woman will be the first to compete in the Miss Minnesota USA contest while wearing a hijab and other modest Muslim clothing that keeps her fully covered. Nineteen-year-old Halima Aden of St. Cloud will be part of the competition Saturday and Sunday in Burnsville. In addition to her hijab, she'll wear a full-body outfit called a burkini during the swimsuit competition, and she'll modify evening gowns to be more modest.

“France does not believe in multiculturalism,” said Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Center for International Studies at The Heritage Foundation. The French Revolution introduced a strong anti-religious animus that over time, he said, has kept religion from the public space. This trend is reflected in France’s concept of laïcité, which has been used to defend bans such as those targeting the burkini. According to The Economist, laïcité is “a strict form of secularism enshrined by law in 1905 after a struggle against authoritarian Catholicism,” meant to keep “religion out of public life.”

The media has found its latest civil rights cause. It’s not the plight of Christians in Muslim countries who are being blocked from coming here as refugees because Obama’s refugee policy favors Muslims. Obama brought over 2,000 Syrians here in July. Only 15 of them were Christians. It’s not the rising fear of an Islamic terrorist attack in Jewish synagogues. I have lately witnessed unprecedented levels of security at synagogues including guards in body armor and checkpoints. Racist Muslim violence against Jewish synagogues has been a staple of Islamic terrorism for too many years.

France’s highest administrative court has overturned a town’s ban on wearing the full-body burqini swimsuit, in a case expected to set a precedent for the other towns with the same ban. The State Council ruled that local authorities could only restrict individual liberties if there was a “proven risk” to public order. The decision followed arguments from the Human Rights League and an anti-Islamophobia group seeking to reverse the decision by the southern town of Villeneuve-Loubet to ban the Islamic swimsuit. […] Not everyone was pleased with the court result. The former mayor of Nice and current President of Provence-Alpes-Côte...

(CNN) — Mayors do not have the right to ban burkinis, France's highest administrative court ruled Friday. The Council of State's ruling suspends a ban in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice, and could affect cities around the country that have prohibited the full-length swimsuit.

Hatchets and harpoons were thrown in a beach brawl that broke out after a tourist was seen taking pictures of women wearing burkinis in Corsica. The fracas between a group described as North African ‘Muslim families’ and local youths broke out a day after a ban on the head-to-toe swimsuits was upheld by a judge in Cannes. A tourist was seen taking pictures of women wearing the full-body swimwear on a creek near the village of Sisco on the French island. When the bathers objected, a group of local teenagers are said to have come to the photographer’s defence. Local...

Students at Finnsnes School in Troms will be allowed to take part in swimming lessons wearing full-body covering swimsuits — also known as burkinis. The arrangement was the result of dialogue between parents and teachers at the school, who held meetings with representatives from Norway’s Refugee Board (flyktningetjenesten) and interpretors, according to Nordlys. […] A swimming club in neighboring Denmark recently hit headlines after introducing separate swimming sessions for Muslim girls. The director of the club in Copenhagen called the move a “recipe for integration” after membership numbers soared. …

For those who don't want a trip to the beach to involve flashing their body, retail giant House of Fraser today unveiled their latest range of burkinis. The new season's launch comes hot on the heels of Marks and Spencer's new full-body swimwear range, which was introduced on their website earlier this month. House of Fraser's legging and tunic sets cover the body from the neck to the ankles - and also come with a separate hijab head covering.

The Burkini. You’d think it was a joke invention: a bit like the grotesque “Mankini” so hilariously sported by Sacha Baron Cohen on all those posters for Borat. What, after all, could be more absurd than melding the not-notably-sexy Muslim dress - the Burka - with the kind of achingly seductive kit worn by Brigitte Bardot in And God Created Woman? But no, the Burkini is for real. It was designed by an Lebanese Australian Aheda Zanetti to enable women in thrall to extreme Saudi-style dress codes to go swimming on beaches and in public baths without incurring a beating...

A Muslim French woman was banned from wearing a "burkini" in a public pool in Emerainville, near Paris, for hygienic reasons, officials said. The Daily Mail reported Wednesday that the woman, a 35-year-old convert to Islam identified only as Carole, bought a season's pass to the pool for herself and her children, but was asked to leave after attending several times. The newspaper said the burkini, purchased in Dubai, was designed for women who subscribe to Islam's modesty recommendations. It is comprised of a head covering, leggings, and a long-sleeved tunic. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said burkas should be...