Burkini party call at Cannes

A man who last year offered to pay the fines of any women charged with wearing the burkini has called for women to target the Cannes Film Festival this week and wear burkinis at a beach party.

Cannes was the first town to introduce the ban last summer and the party organiser, Algerian millionaire Rachid Nekkaz, said he wanted the protest at the film festival because “Cannes is the world showcase of France and the temple of extravagance”.

Right-wing politicians Marine Le Pen and Nadine Morano were leading supporters of the burkini bans and Mr Nekkaz has used their burkini-clad faces on a poster for the Friday afternoon event.

Called Toutes en burkini sur les plages du Festival de Cannes, the beach party was called as Mr Nekkaz said that despite last year’s ban being annulled by the Conseil d’Etat it was still an acute problem for Muslim women.

He called on all women to join in the party to celebrate the Conseil d'Etat decision.

Mr Nekkaz told Nice Matin he defended all people’s rights: “I am a defender of the rights of man and woman, of secularism. I defended a woman in September 2013 who was to be flogged because she refused to wear the niqab.”