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The Islamic View of “Feminism” by Nonie Darwish

What the West needs to know is that in the Muslim world, jihad is considered more important than women, family happiness and life itself. If we are told, as Linda Sarsour said, that Islam stands for peace and justice, what we are not told is that “peace” in Islam will come only after the whole world has converted to Islam, and that “justice” means law under Sharia: whatever is inside Sharia is “justice;” whatever is not in Sharia is not “justice.”

Rebelling against Sharia is, sadly, for the Muslim woman, unthinkable. How can a healthy and normal feminist movement develop under an Islamic legal system that can flog, stone and behead women? That is why Sarsour’s jihadist kind of feminism is no heroic kind of feminism but the only feminism a Muslim woman can practice that will give her a degree of respect, acceptance, and even preferential treatment over other women. In Islam, that is the only kind of feminism allowed to develop.

Muslim activist and Women’s March organizer, Linda Sarsour, has helpfully exposed a side of Islam that is pro-Sharia and pro-jihad:

“I hope that … when we stand up to those who oppress our communities, that Allah accepts from us that as a form of jihad, that we are struggling against tyrants and rulers not only abroad in the Middle East or on the other side of the world, but here in these United States of America, where you have fascists and white supremacists and Islamophobes reigning in the White House.”

Although Sarsour later protested that the word jihad literally means “struggle” or that “our beloved prophet … said… ‘A word of truth in front of a tyrant ruler or leader, that is the best form of jihad,'” that is not what the word jihad means in general parlance to anyone you might ask in the Middle East. The people there know only too well that if they even tried to speak a “word of truth” to someone in power, that could possibly be the last word they would ever utter.

The word jihad is not a matter of left or right or liberal or conservative, except when it being manipulated to repackage and sell as something warm, fuzzy and non-threatening to trusting people in the West.

In Sarsour’s world, women who do this are called feminists, but, in reality, they are as dangerous to women’s rights, the peace of a nation and stability of its government as male jihadists.

At a recent Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention, Sarsour urged fellow Muslims, in an openly racist speech, to wage jihad against the “fascist” and “white supremacist” White House, be perpetually outraged, and not to assimilate. She mentioned 9/11 not as a terrorist event waged by Muslims against Americans, but as a day that triggered victimization and Islamophobia against Muslims by America.

Americans got upset just because they were murdered? As the saying goes: “It all started when he hit me back.”

Even though Sarsour later claimed her use of the word “jihad” meant non-violent dissent, that is not what the word is taken to mean in any Muslim country. There, it means only one thing: war in the service of Islam. In addition, her speech did not sound peaceful. It clearly sounded more like a call for an Islamic uprising against the White House.

A murder that France dares not name by Nidra Poller

Dismay, frustration, exasperation. Three months after Sarah Halimi was savagely murdered by Kobili Traoré, the suspect is still out of reach in a psychiatric hospital, leaving the criminal investigation at a standstill. An update and action plan were presented at a July 4th press conference organized by the Comité de soutien / Vérité et Justice pour Sarah Halimi, under the auspices of the CJFAI (Conféderation des Juifs de France et des Amis d’Israël) at a restaurant in the heart of the Invalides station. Mr. Gilles William Goldnadel, counsel for the victim’s brother William Attal, Samy Ghozlan former police commissioner and president of the BNVCA (Bureau National de vigilance contre l’antisémitisme), and MP Meyer Habib presented the facts as known to date.

Despite the horrors of the case, the presentation, moderated by Richard Abitbol and André Added, was respectful, dignified, and determined. No whining, no wild accusations. The support committee counts 7,000 members, including distinguished thinkers Georges Bensoussan, Pascal Bruckner, Luc Ferry, Alain Finkielkraut, Eric Marty and more.

I was in Israel on the 22nd of May when lawyers representing Sarah Halimi’s adult children – attorneys Jean-Alexandre Buchinger and David-Olivier Kaminski – presented their position at a press conference. Without stoking controversy, let it be understood that they favor a prudent “loyalist” approach, whereas Maître Goldnadel, a mince-no-words editorialist and former president of the France-Israel Association, is more forthrightly combative. At issue: the failure of law enforcement to intervene while Traoré was beating and torturing Sarah Halimi. The autopsy concludes that the victim was still alive when she was pushed off her 3rd floor balcony. At least six policemen were in the building, waiting for reinforcements before attempting to apprehend the assailant. Too late.

A brief review of the facts as corroborated by the police report

Twenty-seven-year-old Kobili Traoré, of Malian origin, a repeat offender with at least twenty convictions for theft, violence, and drugs, has no psychiatric history. As far as can be known at this stage of the investigation, no defense of mental instability has ever been presented in the various criminal proceedings and/or prison sentences. On the 3rd of April, after allegedly spending the afternoon smoking marijuana with friends, he came home in an agitated state and made so much trouble that his mother threw him out in the middle of the night. Apparently she did not seek medical help or police protection. No interviews with or statement by the family have been made public to date. Traoré sought refuge with Malian neighbors, the Diara family, that took him in unsuspectingly. But he was so aggressive that they barricaded themselves in a room and called the police. Three agents arrived within minutes and stood outside the door of the Diara apartment. Traoré was pacing around, loudly reciting koranic verses. Three more policemen arrived but did not enter the apartment because, according to the police report, they suspected they were dealing with a terrorist (the koranic verses).

While they waited for reinforcements, Traoré climbed from the Diara balcony to the next balcony, smashed the window, and fell upon his orthodox Jewish neighbor Sarah Halimi, a 65 year-old retired M.D. Shouting allahu akhbar, shietan (devil), he battered and tortured her, interjecting koranic verses with unspeakable barbaric acts. A neighbor across the courtyard called the police and recorded several minutes of the incident. But the police were already there and still did not intervene.

No matter how many times this fact is stated, repeated, corroborated, I cannot report it without a feeling of utter dismay. By the time the elite forces arrived, 50 minutes after the first response to the Diara’s call, Sarah Halimi lay dead in the courtyard and Kobili Traoré was back in the Diara apartment, calmly reciting koranic verses and boasting “I killed the neighborhood shietan.” He was arrested and placed in psychiatric confinement. To date, the court-appointed psychiatrist has not turned over his report to police or judicial authorities, and Traoré has not been questioned by police investigators. The anti-Semitic motive has not been included as an aggravating circumstance of the charges he faces.

JAMES PATERSON, AUSTRALIAN SENATOR DEFENDS ISRAEL

James Paterson, who’s not yet 30, has been since last year a Liberal member of the Australian Senate, representing Victoria. In his maiden speech he called on Australia to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

And in the latest issue of the Australian Jewish News Senator Paterson has a splendid article regarding the brouhaha over the casting of an Israeli actress in the movie Wonder Woman.

It’s replicated on his web page.http://senatorpaterson.com.au/2017/07/06/bds-feminism-and-gal-gadot/

‘Superhero movies have become a staple of Hollywood, but few have garnered as much political attention as Wonder Woman. It’s the latest target of the ugly anti-Israel Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

The film has already been banned in Lebanon and Tunisia, pulled from the Nuits du Cinéma film festival in Algeria, and temporarily banned in Jordan.

This pointless boycott neatly highlights the deep undercurrent of anti-Semitism within the BDS campaign, despite the protests to the contrary by its advocates.

Wonder Woman is not a movie about Israel, or the Israel-Palestine conflict. It’s silent on Israel’s right to exist, and its right to defend itself. It takes no view on the validity of the claims of Palestinians.

The only crime Wonder Woman is alleged to have committed is to feature an Israeli woman as the lead actress. This fact alone has been sufficient to justify and excuse boycotts, bans, and over the top criticism.

Like other Israeli women, Gal Gadot served in the Israeli Defence Force. Like most people, Gadot has condemned Hamas for its terrorism.

Her views on the right of Israelis to live free from the threat of violence, and her support for the IDF’s securing of this right, are no different to the support that the vast majority of Australians give to our troops fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.

Gadot’s role in Wonder Woman has even been denounced in the pages of the Fairfax press, with columnist Ruby Hamad claiming it’s an example of the how Western feminism ignores the plight of Arab women.

Hamad claims that the praise the movie has received from her fellow feminists’, despite Gadot’s role, is “a frustrating reminder of what I call the Arab blindspot of Western feminism.”

She continues: “Hailing Wonder Woman as a hero for all women is an ironic assault given the huge gulf between the character’s anti-war idealism and the hawkish views of the actor who portrays her.”

Hamad is correct to call attention to the plight of Arab women. But it is wrong to blame this on Israel – the only country in the Middle East that provides women the same level of freedom and opportunity, regardless of their race or religion, that exists in the west.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report Israel is ranked as the 49th most gender-equal society in the world, slightly behind Australia at 46.

This is in stark contrast to the extensive legal and cultural oppression that exists throughout the rest of the middle east. After Israel, the next highest ranked country in the region is Qatar, at 119. And the majority of the middle east is even worse, filling 12 of the bottom 20 places.

This is because of systemic legal and cultural inequality, covering everything from laws enforcing strict Islamic dress codes, to woman’s testimony in court being worth half of that of a man’s – a policy that exists for at least some issues in 14 Middle Eastern countries. The horrific treatment of women under ISIS, with their widespread practice of capturing women to be kept as sex-slaves, is even worse.

There have recently been some small advances, with King Salman of Saudi Arabia issuing a decree that will allow women to study, work, and access government services without requiring permission from a male guardian. But these advances are long overdue, and sadly, few and far between.

Feminists who care about the plight of Arab women would do better to examine their own blindspots and focus on these real outrages, rather than a Hollywood movie with a Jewish actress’

On Facebook Senator Paterson doe not resile from proclaiming his staunch support for Israel:

Peter Smith A Little Credit, Please, Where It Is Due

You expect the Left’s scribblers to work themselves into a foot-stomping lather about Donald Trump — outrage is, after all, what the Left does best. But what of your normally more sensible commentators? If he doesn’t fit the presidential mould, so what! His policies are terrific.

Donald Trump’s magnificent Warsaw speech was discussed on CNN and MSNBC as being white nationalism in disguise for, among other things, citing symphonies as an achievement of Western civilisation. You couldn’t make it up. Except that leftist hacks can make up anything once a fall guy has been thoroughly demonised as human vermin. They are practised at the dark art.

I have heard Trump described by media commentators as a schmuck, buffoon, pig, crass, grotesque, mentally unstable, racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, vulgarian, narcissistic, coarse, egotistical, shallow, horrible, one-dimensional, an embarrassment, and much more beside; some much worse. How about this from our own Nikki Sava: “Ruts deep in mud.” Even the otherwise estimable Andrew Bolt agreed with Richard Alston[i] that Trump might not “pass the character test.”

No one, apparently, can resist virtue signalling. Just when did media commentators become self-righteous arbiters of good taste and character? And just when did manners trump policies? Pun intended. When Trump became president, that’s when. This brings me to Greg Sheridan

Recently Sheridan offered his opinion that “Trump is a poor president.”[ii] As you would appreciate, this is very mild-mannered when set against most of the personal barbs aimed at Trump. Why have I picked it out? I have picked it out because unlike the rest it is a serious charge. It can be construed as being policy-related, rather than fitting into the usual script of gratuitous insults.

Trump’s policies matter to over 300 million Americans and, in fact, to all of us. His supposed personality flaws not so much; particularly as none of us should cast the first stone. The question is simple. Is Trump a poor president; and, to boot, after only six months in office? Put it this way. What egregious things has he done? What egregious things does he intend doing?

First things first. If he is a poor president it must mean that he is poor compared with a number of others. Is he poor when compared with, say, Barrack [ISIS, Iran nukes] Obama, George [Iraq] Bush, Bill [North Korean nukes, Monica Lewinsky] Clinton, or with Jimmy [Iran hostages] Carter? It’s too early, you might say, to form any kind of judgement. You’re darn tootin’ it is. At the same time, it is possible to assess what he has done so far, and intends to do, and give him a provisional mark.

I don’t have a complete list of his actions. But try these for size. He has appointed an accomplished cabinet, including Rex Tillerson (State) and General Mattis (Defence). He has succeeded in getting a conservative constitutional judge (Neil Gorsuch) appointed to the Supreme Court.

He has visited Saudi Arabia and urged representatives of the fifty-four Muslim countries who were present to drive out Islamic extremism. He has given his military commanders freedom on the ground to take effective action against ISIS and the Taliban. He is trying (if so far unsuccessfully) to persuade China to do something about North Korea. He has leant on NATO countries to meet their defence obligations; with some success. He has stood up to al-Assad and Russia in Syria. He has improved the US relationship with Israel. He has begun the process to rebuild America’s armed forces. Contrast all of this with Obama’s appeasement and passivity.

He has reduced and removed a host of regulations hampering industry and mining. He is working valiantly with a motley and divided crew of congressional Republicans to get better health insurance, to markedly reduce taxes, and to renew America’s infrastructure. He is taking concrete steps to improve the delivery of health services to veterans. He has appointed talented and committed people to improve schooling (Betsy DeVos) and housing (Ben Carson) for those in depressed inner-city areas. He has tightened border security.

Europe Wary as U.S. Scrutinizes Iran Nuclear Deal Diplomats say drawn-out assessment of accord could crimp its effectiveness By Laurence Norman

BRUSSELS—European diplomats say they are increasingly concerned the Trump administration will stretch out its review of the Iranian nuclear deal, undermining the agreement by curbing the economic benefits designed to ensure Iran’s compliance.

President Donald Trump has attacked the agreement, reached in 2015, as a “terrible deal” for the U.S.

European officials have remained publicly upbeat about the U.S. remaining a party to the deal, but diplomats privately voice serious concerns about where the U.S. review is headed. They say Washington is providing little feedback, has given no firm end-date for the review and hasn’t made clear who is shaping the process.

European officials still believe the Trump administration won’t abandon the nuclear deal, but many fear Washington will keep it under a rolling review. That, they say, would crimp economic benefits Iran expected from the agreement by persuading already cautious Western banks and investors to stay away—whereas President Barack Obama’s top officials urged engagement with Tehran. European diplomats also worry that if the U.S. commitment remains uncertain, Iran may respond by attempting limited violations.

Trump administration officials have raised concerns—echoed in some European capitals—that the deal doesn’t curtail Iran’s nuclear activities once its key commitments expire over the next 15 years. Washington has also repeatedly criticized the deal for not committing Iran to change its behavior in the region, where it has intervened to support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and moved to increase its influence elsewhere through proxy forces such as Hezbollah.

While Obama administration officials toured Europe to encourage companies to take advantage of the lifting of most sanctions, the new administration has taken the opposite approach. White House Deputy Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that Mr. Trump used last weekend’s Group of 20 leaders meeting in Germany to press his counterparts “to stop doing business with nations that sponsor terrorism, especially Iran.”

The limbo over the deal could strain U.S. ties with Europe, where the governments of France, Germany, and the U.K., as well as the European Union, helped negotiate the deal and strongly support it. They argue the deal averted a military conflict over Iran’s nuclear program and is now allowing the continent to start rebuilding investment ties with Tehran. CONTINUE AT SITE

UNESCO Supports Terrorism by Bassam Tawil

This is the same Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership that purports to be working toward achieving peace and coexistence with Israel. In the upside-down world of Palestinian denial, such repudiation of the truth is par for the course: the “culture of peace” lie that Abbas fed to President Donald Trump several weeks ago has about as much truth value as this newest deadly fabrication.

As of now, Palestinians also have an international agency (UNESCO) to support their anti-Israel narrative and rhetoric. The UNESCO resolutions are being interpreted by many Palestinians as proof that Israel has no right to exist. For many Palestinians, the resolutions are a green light to pursue their “armed struggle” to “liberate Palestine, from the [Mediterranean] sea to the [Jordan] river.”

The latest UNESCO resolutions are a catalyst for Palestinian terrorism against Israelis. Yet they are more than that: they also make the prospect of peace even more distant.

What do Hamas and UNESCO have in common?

Both believe that Jews have no historical, religious or emotional attachment to the Holy Land.

The recent UNESCO resolutions concerning Jerusalem and Hebron are precisely what terror groups that deny Israel’s right to exist, such as Hamas, have long been hoping to hear from the international community.

The first resolution denies that Israel is the sovereign power over Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, while the second one designates Hebron and the Jewish Tomb of the Patriarchs as an “Endangered Palestinian World Heritage Site.”

Iran Raises the Stakes By Lawrence J. Haas

With America’s global attention largely focused elsewhere, Iran continues to expand its military capabilities – legally and otherwise – forcing the question of what Washington and its regional allies plan to do about it.

Iran’s military expansionism of late encompasses a host of activities: pursuing illegal means to expand its nuclear and ballistic missile technology and expertise; continuing to test its longer range and increasingly sophisticated ballistic missile; and building underground facilities in Lebanon to manufacture missiles and other weapons for its most powerful terrorist client Hezbollah.

This expansionism is boosting the capacity of Iran, a Shiite nation, to threaten Israel and the region’s U.S.-backed Sunni states – most notably Saudi Arabia – raising the stakes for a U.S. administration that has wisely discarded President Barack Obama’s efforts at U.S.-Iranian rapprochement but not yet enunciated a comprehensive alternative.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently articulated the broad elements of a strategy: “Our policy towards Iran,” he told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in response to a question, “is to push back on [its regional] hegemony, contain their ability to develop, obviously, nuclear weapons and to work towards support of those elements inside of Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of that government.”

The question now is whether Tillerson was speaking for an administration that agrees on those elements and, if so, whether it is serious enough to put the building blocks of a comprehensive strategy in place – e.g., a close monitoring of Iranian compliance with the 2015 global nuclear agreement; greater U.S. economic sanctions in response to both Iran’s violations as well as its continuing terror-related efforts; closer U.S. military cooperation with its regional allies to counter Iran’s hegemonic ambitions; and a serious effort to engage with an Iranian populace that, to a great extent, finds the regime repugnant and yearns for more freedom and democracy.

In three recent reports, German intelligence and other authorities have revealed that Tehran is working to illegally acquire technology and expertise to advance both its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The reports revealed, for instance, that three German citizens were charged in connection with “the deliveries of 51 special valves to an Iranian company” that Iran could use for its Arak heavy water reactor – a reactor that can develop plutonium for nuclear weapons and that Iran was supposed to dismantle under the nuclear agreement. They also revealed that Iran was seeking the “products and scientific know-how” to develop “weapons of mass destruction as well [as] missile technology.”

Meanwhile, Tehran dismissed Friday’s call by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that it stop its ballistic missile testing that he said violates the spirit of the nuclear agreement. That’s because Iran is testing missiles that could carry a nuclear warhead, reinforcing concerns that – despite its statements to the contrary – it plans to pursue nuclear weapons either by violating the agreement or waiting until it expires over the next decade or so.

Mahmoud Abbas’s Legacy Blows Up in His Face The Palestinian leader’s efforts to secure a place in history appear likely to backfire in disastrous fashion. By Elliot Kaufman

Recently, Palestinian politics have presented more questions than answers.

For instance: Why has the Palestinian Authority (PA) urged Israel to send less electricity to the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip? Why is Egypt helping Hamas? Who is Mohammed Dahlan, and why is Hamas meeting with him? And why did one of the most astute observers of Palestinian politics just declare “the end of the so-called two-state solution”?

As we shall see, this drama has more to do with Palestinian and Egyptian strategic interests than with Israel’s actions.

The story begins with Mahmoud Abbas’s legacy, or lack thereof. Abbas, the President of the PA, is now 82 years old and in poor health. He is on the way out and he knows it. Worse, he knows that his people, the Palestinians, are no closer to a state of their own than they were when he became President in 2005. Worse still, they remain poor and divided between his Fatah party, which runs the West Bank, and Hamas, the terrorist group in control of Gaza. Deeply unpopular, Abbas most likely realizes that he will be remembered as the leader who crushed Palestinian democracy in its infancy, entrenched corruption, and left the movement with no clear successor.

So what is he to do? At this point, he has lost the legitimacy to make any meaningful deal with Israel. His last hope for a positive legacy is to reunite Fatah and Hamas, giving the cause of Palestinian statehood new life.

There’s just one problem: Hamas violently kicked Fatah out of the Gaza Strip in 2007, and it has no plan to relinquish power. The last attempt at a Palestinian unity government, in 2015, failed. So this year, Abbas decided he had to pressure Hamas to let Fatah back into Gaza. Accordingly, he set about refusing to pay for Gazan electricity and urging Israel to reduce its electricity shipments to Gaza. The PA began cutting off the salaries it paid to Gazan civil servants and former Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails. It also halted shipments of medicine from the West Bank to Gaza and refused permits to sick Gazans who needed to leave for treatment.

ISRAEL IN AFRICA-The Israeli heart and mind just transformed the lives of 1 million Africans forever see note please

https://www.innoafrica.org/israel.html
For Israel African Lives Matter which is more than one can say for the so called “African-American Congressional Caucus” ….rsk
THE ISRAEL CONNECTION
From renewable energy to agriculture to IT and more, Israel is a leader in the global innovation sector. In Africa, these innovations have the power to save lives. With similar climates and natural resources, Israeli solar, water and agricultural technologies are a natural fit for African villages. Our mission is to share the knowledge and expertise developed in Israel with people and communities that need it.
ISRAELI IRRIGATION
Fighting hunger and promoting economic growth

Almost 50 years after the success of their first drip irrigation system, Netafim is still a world leader in growing more crops with less water. We bring their irrigation systems to rural communities, where people are dependent on agriculture for both food and income. Even in times of drought, Netafim technology helps farmers grow the crops they need to feed their families and to sell in local markets.
ISRAELI MONITORING
Tracking our systems from across the world

There’s one thing everyone wants to know about our projects: how do we know that they’re working? We use a custom designed remote monitoring system built by Israeli engineer Meir Yaacoby that collects data from our solar systems and sends that information to an online server that we can access from any computer, anywhere in the world. We know how much energy our projects are producing and consuming, we can predict problems before they start and we can protect the investments of our donors, keeping our systems strong and ensuring that they provide our communities with the energy they need and deserve.
ISRAELI COMPUTERS
Teaching technology in the villages

We just installed our first Israeli manufactured computer at Mngwangwa Primary School in Malawi. This ultra durable, compact, low-cost and energy efficient computer by Compulab is already offering students the opportunity to learn IT skills in their village, all powered by solar energy. With the success of this pilot, we’ll begin providing Compulab computers to all of our solar powered schools next year.
ISRAELI LOCKS
Preventing theft at minimal cost

Karnaf patented what might just be the simplest and most cost effective tool for theft prevention on the market. It’s a small metal device that locks the panels to one another and the roof, making them nearly impossible to steal without heavy machinery unlikely to be found in our rural communities. We haven’t had a single instance of theft since installing these locks. And the best part: each one is less than $20.

Most French think there are ‘too many foreigners,’ say ‘they don’t feel at home’ anymore – poll

According to an Ipsos survey, commissioned and published by Le Monde, 65 percent of French people believe that there are “too many foreigners” in France, while 60 percent say that they “don’t feel at home as they did before.”

Also, over 60 percent said that migrants “in France do not make the effort to integrate,” and 46 percent believe that integration isn’t a complicated process.

The percentages vary depending on the political views of the respondents, with 95 percent of far-right National Front supporters saying that there are too many foreigners in France. The figure for Republicans is 83 percent (up seven percent since last year), while the left-leaning Socialists’ figure is 46 percent.

Similarly, social divisions remain clear; 77 percent of laborers think that there are too many foreigners in France, compared with 46 percent of managers.

Islam also remains a hot topic for the French. Another Ipsos annual survey, ‘French Fractures 2017,’ indicated that 60 percent of the respondents believe Islam is incompatible “with the values of the French Republic.”

In another question, an overwhelming 78 percent of the French regard Islam as a religion “seeking to impose its way of life on others.”

About 46 percent said that “even if it is not its main message, Islam still contains within it the seeds of violence and intolerance.” The figure is five percent up from the previous year.

The surveys were conducted amid a state of high alert, following two years of jihadist attacks. In November 2015, 130 people were killed in Paris; in July 2016, 86 people died in a truck attack in Nice.

France has been engulfed by disputes over Islam – one particularly hot topic being burkinis, an Islamic piece of beachwear.

Last summer, it was forbidden for a while to swim in burkinis on French beaches, though the Supreme Court ruled the measure unconstitutional in August. This year, the row has been renewed. A few days ago, the mayor of Lorette in central France banned the full-body swimsuit from a new leisure park, despite a high court ruling the bans illegal last year. Also, an activist tried to arrange a burkini beach party during the Cannes Film Festival, and the city administration pulled the plug on the plan.