27 august 2016, we will fight them on the beaches...

Whilst you would think the french would be the first aux armes to defend a woman's right to wear whatever clothes she wants, fear and symbolism seem to have somehow crashed through common sense to create the "burkini" bans sweeping its beaches, though mercifully now hopefully stopped in its tracks. At root is a deep french faith in secularism, despite its catholic mores, which led in 2004 to an outrageous ban in schools on ostentatious symbols of faith, like the muslim headscarf, jewish kippah and large christian crosses. The same logic led to the burkini ban, but this was openly fanned by a wave of rampant islamophobia in certain quarters. In nice it might officially be to secure public order, but the region's mayor was clear about its real rationale: "rampant islamisation is progressing in our country". You know where this is going - just read houellebecq's (excellent) submission (and you really should). There is a case to say that whilst nigella lawson wearing a burkini on bondi beach is one thing, a french lady wearing one in these heightened times on the plaige is another, but it's not a very strong one. There is also a case that sometimes women are forced to do what they don't want: where a saudi couple are sat on the beach, he naked but for short shorts, she in thick, black garb top-to-toe, you may wonder. Yet, the burkini ban does exactly that and worse. It's not the family or religious community forcing women to dress against their will, it's the secular state. It seems openly racist discrimination: have any nuns in their habits been banned yet ? The deep stain on secularism is not the burkini but the indefensible image of 4 armed french police harassing a woman on a beach for wearing the wrong clothes. Understandable perhaps given its recent traumas, but french morals are in a terrible place, and shame on populists like sarkozy (whom I have sometimes supported and would again if he's head to head with le pen) for jumping on the bandwagon. We can only hope the wonderful republic gets through this difficult bout of western civilisational progress with liberty, egality, fraternity and burkini intact.