Muslim girls must take swimming lessons alongside boys, German court rules – Telegraph.co.uk

While some other pupils at the school chose to wear burkinis to the lessons, the girl who brought the case refused, arguing the costume did not provide sufficient coverage.

She also claimed she was offended by the sight of boys and men in swimming costumes, and called for the lessons to be single-sex.

But the court found that she failed to give a “reasonable case for why the burkini does not conform to Islamic dress codes”.

The judges referred to her own arguments in court, saying she had testified that there are “no binding rules in Islam” about swimwear.

The burkini does not reveal the contours of a woman or girl’s body when wet, they said.

They said she had failed to give an adequate  explanation for why she was unable to look away if the sight of partially clad men and boys offended her.

The court’s apparent endorsement of the burkini comes just two days after Angela Merkel added her voice to calls for a partial ban on the burka in German public life.

“The full veil must be banned, wherever legally possible. Showing your face is part of our way of life,” Mrs Merkel told her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party conference.