A journalist for France 4, Mathilde Cusin, watched the incident unfold. “I felt like I was watching a pack of hounds attack a woman who was sitting down, in tears, with her young daughter,” she said.”Racist terms were used freely,” said Siam. “I was stunned. I heard things which no one had ever said to me, like ‘Go home!’ and ‘we’re Catholics here!'”While some people defended the 34-year-old, Siam says around three quarters of beachgoers took the side of the police and demanded that she remove the veil or leave the beach. In the end, she paid the €11 fine, and has since contacted the Collectif Contre l’Islamophobie, a French organization which protects Muslims’ rights.Siam said the incident left her feeling “humiliated” and that she felt she was fined simply for being a Muslim.The mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, has supported the police officers, arguing that they were within their rights to fine anyone considered to be wearing an “ostentatious” symbol of faith, and that he had “no reason to doubt their judgment,”, according to La Depeche newspaper.
Source: Woman fined for wearing headscarf on Cannes beach – The Local






Tunisian women, one (R) wearing a “burkini”, a full-body swimsuit designed for Muslim women. Photo credit should read FETHI BELAID/AFP/Getty Images) 

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