Burkini Ban Outrage Builds As Businessman Offers To Pay Fines

Those wearing burkinis now face fines after 11 French cities, beginning with Cannes, banned the garment. Cannes fined three women for wearing burkinis who had to pay fines of €38 (about $43), RT reports. Though people of all religions could wear the burkini, it's commonly a garment worn by Muslim women. Attempts to enforce the ban have already led to outrageous images such as this one. In any other context, a gang of armed men telling a woman to take her clothes off would be a crime. On the French Riviera, it's the law. At least until August 31, when the ban lifts.

Now, an Algerian entrepreneur is stepping in to pay the fines of women wearing burkinis, CNN reports. Rachid Nekkaz is offering up his checkbook to right what he sees as a wrong. "I decided to pay for all the fines of women who wear the burkini in order to guarantee their freedom of wearing these clothes, and most of all, to neutralize the application on the ground of this oppressive and unfair law," Nekkaz tells CNN. An Italian imam posted an image of nuns on the beach to highlight the ridiculousness of the ban.

France banned both the burqa and the niqab in 2011, becoming the first European country to do so. Cities to enact the ban include: Nice, Menton, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Cannes, Cap d'Ail, Eze, Mandelieu-La Napoule, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Saint-Laurent-du-Var, Villefranche-sur-Mer, and Villeneuve-Loubet.