A town near Nice, Villeneuve-Loubet, is at the centre of a test case to stop the ban on the full-body swimwear.
France’s highest court has suspended the ban on burkinis – or full-body swimwear – in a test case brought by human rights groups.
It is hoped that this will set a precedent for other towns that have put the ban in place.
The state council’s ruling concerns the small town of Villeneuve-Loubet, close to Nice, and reverses the ban that was put in place following the Bastille Day attacks and the killing of a priest in Normandy.
Lawyers for the human rights groups ruled that the ban on swimwear that displays religious affiliation feeds fear and impinges on the basic freedom of all French people.
This follows an incident earlier this week in which a woman was surrounded by armed police and forced to remove her burkini on a beach in Nice.
The ban has caused a major political divide in France, which prides itself on its principle of laïcité, or secularism. The country is built on strong beliefs in the separation of church and state, with people free to practice their faith as long as there is no threat to public order.
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