Six seaside towns in France have banned the burkini, the full-body swimming garment worn by Muslim women.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls has also criticised the wearing of the burkini as “not compatible with the values of France and the Republic”, saying he supported mayors who ban it if they acted in the public good.
In the southwest, the mayor of the resort town of Leucate, Michel Py, signed a municipal decree that banned the burkini on public beaches.
The decree, which runs until August 31, will bar access to public beaches to “any person who is not properly dressed, respectful of moral behaviour and secularism, hygiene and bathing safety.”
The town is located on the Mediterranean coast, 35 kilometres (20 miles) from Perpignan.
In the northern French department of Pas-de-Calais, the mayor of the Channel town of Oye-Plage said on Tuesday he would also move to ban the burkini after seeing a woman wearing “a complete cape and gloves, covering her face and her eyes” as she headed to the beach on Sunday.
In the nearby upmarket resort of Le Touquet, local mayor and MP Daniel Fasquelle said he would also implement a burkini ban in the coming days “to fight against religious proselytising.
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France has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks over the last 19 months that have left the country on edge and fretting over home-grown religious extremism.
Partly as a result, the burkini has become embroiled in a fierce debate about perceived religious symbols and their place in a strongly secular country. To critics, the garment is associated with an intolerant and sectarian strand of Islam.
The bans are opposed by some, who contend they are a populist ploy, violate human rights and likely to inflame tensions.
The Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge to the ban in Cannes. It is now taking its case to the Council of State, the highest judicial authority in France for administrative matters.
