Women-only swim making waves in Marseille

A women’s association in the city of Marseille has triggered irate reactions in secular France with its plans to rent a swimming park for a day, which will be only for women and who must be covered up chest to knees.

Michel Amiel, mayor of Pennes-Mirabeau — where the swimming park is located — said yesterday on BFM TV he intends to ban the event on grounds it could “trouble public order”.

Amiel said he was “shocked and angry” after learning of the event. “This is communitarianism, pure and simple,” he told Le Parisien.