French police arrested several Muslim women believed to be planning a demonstration supporting the wearing of burkinis in Cannes on Friday (May 26).
Local media said they were believed to be linked to French-Algerian businessman Rachid Nekkaz. He led a campaign against a ban on burkinis on French Riviera beaches last summer, and called on women to come to the beach in the head-to-toe swimwear that covers everything except for the face, hands and feet.
On Wednesday (May 24), the prefecture of Alpes-Maritimes said all public demonstrations are forbidden for the duration of the film festival in the city, prompting Nekkaz to cancel the protest on Facebook.
On Friday, Nekkaz condemned the women's arrests on his Facebook profile and said the arrests were "illegal".
A public beach ban on the burkini - a head-to-toe swimwear garment that complies with Islamic interpretations of "modesty" - was imposed by more than a dozen resorts in the Riviera last July in the wake of the religiously-motivated truck attack in Nice that killed over 80 people. Bans were defended on the grounds that burkinis violate French principles of secularism.
The rule was overturned last August by the top-level administrative court which said the ban was unconstitutional and violated individual freedoms.
