Disturbing photos show French police forcing a Muslim woman to remove her burkini at the beach

Last week, the French city of Nice followed fifteen other towns and cities in announcing a ban on burkinis: swimsuits Muslim women sometimes wear that cover their bodies and heads to the same extent as a burqa.

French authorities have justified the ban by saying that burkinis and burqas pose a threat to the nation’s secular culture, particularly in the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and Nice. There are also those who say that restricting burkinis and burqas offers Muslim women liberation from “oppressive” religious requirements. The Guardian reported that Nice’s deputy mayor, Christian Estrosi, justified the ban in a letter by saying, “hiding the face or wearing a full-body costume to go to the beach is not in keeping with our ideal of social relations”.

But what the bans amount to is the opposite of liberating: they’re a legally sanctioned oppression of Muslim women’s freedom to express their religious beliefs. The absurdity of these laws became harder to ignore after chilling photos surfaced over the weekend of a woman on a beach in Nice being forced by four armed police officers to remove her clothing:

Women who are apprehended by police while wearing a burkini can be fined €38 in some towns. Many Muslims in France have roots in the country reaching back generations.