Excerpt:
After two mothers wearing Muslim hijabs, or headscarves, were refused access to a beach in the French municipality of Wissous, its regional government of Essone on Saturday legally challenged Wissous' ban on the wearing of religious symbols.
The Versailles Administrative Court, approached in an urgent joint application by Essone and by the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), was due to give its decision late Saturday afternoon.
Wissous Mayor Richard Trinquier, of the right-wing UMP party, had been at the beach the previous Saturday and had made the decision to turn the women away. Wissous is about 30 kilometres south of Paris and is a popular summer leisure spot.