France's highest administrative court has suspended a ban on full-body burkini swimsuits that has outraged Muslims and opened divisions within the government, pending a definitive ruling.
The Conseil d'Etat gave the ruling following a request from the League of Human Rights to overturn the burkini ban in the Mediterranean town of Villeneuve-Loubet on the grounds it contravenes civil liberties.
The court said in a statement the decree to ban burkinis in Villeneuve-Loubet "seriously, and clearly illegally, breached the fundamental freedoms to come and go, the freedom of beliefs and individual freedom."
Villeneuve-Loubet is just one of around 30 towns which have passed burkini bans.
The mayors of several other towns in southeast France have said they would maintain their bans on the burkini swimsuit despite the ruling.
Town hall authorities in Nice said the mayor would continue to fine women wearing burkinis while the mayor of nearby Frejus, David Rachline, said "the Frejus order is still valid."
Under the French legal system, temporary decisions can be handed down before the court takes more time to prepare a judgement on the underlying legality of the case.
Earlier, the Australian woman who created the burkini said she cannot understand why it was banned on some beaches in France.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Aheda Zanetti said the burkini has wrongly been labelled as a negative product. "It is misunderstood," she said.
She created it in 2004 "as there was a hole in the market for modest swimwear" and to give women an option whether they want to wear it for sun protection or for reasons of modesty.
She said she does not understand negative comments from politicians, including former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, as it gives freedom of choice.
"It's supposed to integrate among Western society. It doesn't symbolise Islamic term or Islamic type of dress.
"It doesn't even symbolise that a Muslim wearer would wear it.
"I think he is misunderstood, first of all what the design is all about and what it is designed like and he is misunderstood that it is giving the wearer a freedom of choice."
She insisted that it is not designed solely for Muslim women, but for women in general, and that she has had several requests from Ireland for the burkini from those with fair skin.
She says French authorities who have been forcing women to remove protective clothing on the beach is a case of targeting those who look like Muslim women and punishing them.
"They really are just targeting anyone who so called looks like Muslim women and embarrassing and punishing them for who they want to be.
"I thought France was allowing women to have that freedom of choice, freedom of voice. I didn’t think they were going punish them for the choices they have made."
She said those who wear a burkini are being accused of hatred and crime when all they are trying to do is enjoy themselves on the beach.
"People that wear a burkini swimsuit are not a criminal. They are not extended to hatred. They are doing the opposite, and they think the opposite, the do they opposite and they feel the opposite. And all that it is is health and fitness and enjoyment."
