French police fines woman on Nice beach following burkini ban

Paris, Aug 24 (IANS) The French police fined a 34-year-old woman on a beach in the country's Nice city as part of a controversial ban on burkini in the wake of recent terror attacks in the country.

Photographs emerged on Tuesday of armed police confronting a woman and making her remove a blue long-sleeved tunic.

Fifteen French towns implemented bans on the burkini, which covers the body and head, citing concerns about religious clothing after terrorist killings in France, the Guardian reported.

The mother of two said she had been fined on the beach for wearing leggings, a tunic and a head scarf.

Her ticket read that she was not wearing "an outfit respecting good morals and secularism".

Nice became the latest French resort to ban the burkini and barred clothing that "overtly manifests adherence to a religion at a time when France and places of worship are the target of terrorist attacks".

The ban by many towns will come before France's highest administrative court on Thursday following an appeal by the Human Rights League, a French NGO.

The ban triggered a fierce debate in France and elsewhere about the wearing of the full-body swimsuit, women's rights and secularism.