Don't blame the sunbathers in Turkmenistan if their bikinis seem out of style at the country's forlorn Caspian Sea beach resorts this summer.

The Turkmen government has banned the import of new bikinis and other traditional swimwear, forcing swimmers and other beachgoers to use their old suits or come up with their own fashions.

Owners of swimwear shops say customs officials have also in recent months halted the import of any swimsuits, as well as short pants for both men and women.

"As the swimming season approaches, demand for these products is growing," one seller told RFE/RL. "But the customs officers do not explain the reason for this ban."

At a new bazaar in Ashgabat -- the glittering, white-marbled capital of Turkmenistan -- shopkeepers that still have swimwear and shorts for sale say they are only able to offer what's left from their old inventory.

Once those are gone, it's unclear what people without a bathing suit will wear in the arid Central Asia nation -- and for those who like wearing shorts in a country where summer temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius.

It’s also unclear whether old bikinis will also fall afoul of government fashion norms.

New bikinis and shorts are just the latest in a long line of goods that the Turkmen government has decided aren’t acceptable for its people.

Ruled tightly since 2007 by authoritarian President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who has dubbed himself "The Protector," Turkmenistan has in recent months imposed bans on such things as black-painted cars (the president thinks white cars bring "good fortune"). Also prohibited: fingernail polish, hair dye, and gold jewelry for all state workers, The Chronicle of Turkmenistan newspaper reported last month.

Like those previous bans, no government statement has been issued about the prohibition on the import of bikinis and shorts.

One customs official told RFE/RL that the ban is connected with the "the moral norms of the Turkmen people," and alluded to officials not wanting Turkmen women to wear revealing swimsuits. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, since he was not authorized to speak to the media.



With no official word about the ban, most people are finding out about it the hard way, as happened earlier this year when Ashgabat police began impounding black vehicles parked around the capital, even pulling over the drivers of such dark cars and issuing stiff fines.



The ban on nail polish and hair dyes for government employees was only the start, as shops that sold such items reported they were no longer allowed by customs officials to import the products. The items are slowly vanishing from store shelves.



Many Turkmen find the hair-dye ban to be particularly ironic, since Berdymukhammedov himself was known to have random streaks of gray upon his head early in his rule, though in recent years he has appeared in public with a head of sheer black hair, with some referring to him as a "burning brunette."

Turkmenistan is a conservative society whose cultural and fashion norms are also influenced by Islam, the dominant religion. Still, traditional swimwear of the sort found in Western countries -- for both men and women -- isn’t an uncommon sight on the country’s Caspian Sea beaches.

Many of the clothing and fashion bans appear to have focused on women, when in 2013 female state workers and students were issued rules that instructed them to wear scarlet-red dresses and state-approved national scarves.



Natural-gas rich Turkmenistan and its sparse population of some 5 million people should be relatively well off. But the government's management of the economy has led to problems such as high unemployment, rampant inflation, and severe shortages of staples, including bread. That’s forced Turkmen to smuggle flour in from bordering countries.



With an average monthly salary of about 1,200 manats (about $300), some people have been forced to seek work in Turkey, Azerbaijan, and other Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.



A group of Turkmen staged an impromptu protest on April 3 after they were prevented, without explanation, from boarding a plane to Istanbul amid a government campaign to keep people from leaving the country:





Written by Pete Baumgartner based on reporting by RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service </s> France’s top judges have suspended a ban on burkinis on French beaches which sparked worldwide outrage and criticism.

The country’s highest administrative court released a statement saying the ban would be suspended pending a definitive ruling.

It said the ban "seriously and clearly illegally breached fundamental freedoms to come and go, freedom of beliefs and individual freedom".

The Conseil d'Etat gave the ruling following a request from the League of Human Rights to overturn the burkini ban in the Mediterranean town of Villeneuve-Loubet on the grounds it contravenes civil liberties.

A human rights lawyer says the decision by France's top administrative court to overturn a ban on burkini swimsuits should set a legal precedent for the whole country.

Lawyer Patrice Spinosi, representing the Human Rights League, told reporters that other mayors who have banned burkinis must conform to Friday's decision regarding the town of Villeneuve-Loubet.

He also said women who have already received fines can protest them based on Friday's decision.

"It is a decision that is meant to set legal precedent," he said. "Today all the ordinances taken should conform to the decision of the Council of State. Logically the mayors should withdraw these ordinances. If not legal actions could be taken" against those towns.

"Today the state of law is that these ordinances are not justified. They violate fundamental liberties and they should be withdrawn."

But the mayor of Sisco in northern Corsica says he won't lift his ban which was put in place after sunbathers of North African origin clashed with Sisco villagers on the beach earlier in August.

He told BFM-TV on Friday: "Here the tension is very, very, very strong and I won't withdraw it."

A protest against France’s “oppressive” ban on was staged at the country’s embassy in London on Thursday.

Both Muslim and non-Muslim women donned burkinis, bikinis and swimsuits to sit on a makeshift beach in a bid to force the French government to repeal the "oppressive" law, under which women on beaches have been ordered to remove religious clothing by armed police.

Under the French legal system, temporary decisions can be handed down before the court takes more time to prepare a judgement on the underlying legality of the case.

This page is being updated. </s> France’s highest administrative court on Friday suspended a controversial ban on the burkini by a French Riviera town after it was challenged by rights groups.

In a judgement expected to set a precedent, the State Council ruled that local authorities could only restrict individual liberties if wearing the Islamic swimsuit was a “proven risk” to public order.

The judges said there was no such risk in the case before the court concerning Villeneuve-Loubet, one of around 30 towns to have introduced the bans.

The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) hailed the ruling as a “victory for common sense”.

Police have fined Muslim women for wearing burkinis on beaches in several towns, including in the popular tourist resorts of Nice and Cannes, sparking controversy in France and abroad. The burkini bans have triggered a fierce debate about women’s rights and the French state’s strictly-guarded secularism.

“By overturning a discriminatory ban that is fuelled by and is fuelling prejudice and intolerance, Friday’s decision has drawn an important line in the sand,” Amnesty’s Europe director John Dalhuisen said.“French authorities must now drop the pretence that these measures do anything to protect the rights of women,” he said.

The CFCM’s secretary general Abdallah Zekri said, “This victory for common sense will help to take the tension out of a situation which has become very tense for our Muslim compatriots, especially women.”

The State Council heard arguments from the Human Rights League and an anti-Islamophobia group.

A court in Nice had upheld the Villeneuve-Loubet ban this week.

President Francois Hollande said yesterday that life in France “supposes that everyone sticks to the rules and that there is neither provocation nor stigmatization”.

Anger over the issue was further inflamed this week when photographs in the British media showed police surrounding a woman in a headscarf on a beach in Nice as she removed a long-sleeved top.

The office of Nice’s mayor denied that the woman had been forced to remove clothing, telling AFP she was showing police the swimsuit she was wearing under her top, over a pair of leggings, when the picture was taken.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Thursday condemned any “stigmatization” of Muslims, but maintained that the burkini was “a political sign of religious proselytizing”.

But in a sign of the divisions within the Socialist government on the issue, Education Minister Najat Vallaud- Belkacem said the “proliferation” of burkini bans “was not a welcome development”.

Vallaud-Belkacem, who is of Moroccan origin, took issue with the wording of the ban in Nice which linked the measure to the jihadist truck attack in the resort last month in which 86 people were killed. “In my opinion, there is nothing to prove that there is a link between the terrorism of Daesh and what a woman wears on a beach,” she said, using another term for Islamic State. </s> France’s highest administrative court on Friday suspended a controversial ban on the burkini by a French Riviera town after it was challenged by rights groups.

In a judgement expected to set a precedent, the State Council ruled that local authorities could only restrict individual liberties if wearing the Islamic swimsuit was a “proven risk” to public order.

The judges said there was no such risk in the case before the court concerning Villeneuve-Loubet, one of around 30 towns to have introduced the bans.

The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) hailed the ruling as a “victory for common sense”.

Police have fined Muslim women for wearing burkinis on beaches in several towns, including in the popular tourist resorts of Nice and Cannes, sparking controversy in France and abroad.

The burkini bans have triggered a fierce debate about women’s rights and the French state’s strictly-guarded secularism.

– ‘Line in the sand’ -Amnesty International welcomed the ruling.

“By overturning a discriminatory ban that is fuelled by and is fuelling prejudice and intolerance, today’s decision has drawn an important line in the sand,” Amnesty’s Europe director John Dalhuisen said.

“French authorities must now drop the pretence that these measures do anything to protect the rights of women,” he said.

The CFCM’s secretary general Abdallah Zekri said: “This victory for common sense will help to take the tension out of a situation which has become very tense for our Muslim compatriots, especially women.”

The State Council heard arguments from the Human Rights League and an anti-Islamophobia group.

A court in Nice had upheld the Villeneuve-Loubet ban this week.

President Francois Hollande said Thursday that life in France “supposes that everyone sticks to the rules and that there is neither provocation nor stigmatisation”.

Anger over the issue was further inflamed this week when photographs in the British media showed police surrounding a woman in a headscarf on a beach in Nice as she removed a long-sleeved top.

The office of Nice’s mayor denied that the woman had been forced to remove clothing, telling AFP she was showing police the swimsuit she was wearing under her top, over a pair of leggings, when the picture was taken.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Thursday condemned any “stigmatisation” of Muslims, but maintained that the burkini was “a political sign of religious proselytising”.

“We are not at war with Islam… the French republic is welcoming (to Muslims), we are protecting them against discrimination,” he told BFMTV.

But in a sign of the divisions within the Socialist government on the issue, Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said the “proliferation” of burkini bans “was not a welcome development”.

Vallaud-Belkacem, who is of Moroccan origin, took issue with the wording of the ban in Nice which linked the measure to the jihadist truck attack in the resort last month in which 86 people were killed.

“In my opinion, there is nothing to prove that there is a link between the terrorism of Daesh and what a woman wears on a beach,” she said, using another term for Islamic State.

But Valls contradicted his minister’s claims, saying the bans were necessary to maintain “public order”.

– ‘No legal justification’ -The administrative court in Nice ruled Monday that the Villeneuve-Loubet ban was “necessary” to prevent “public disorder” after the Nice attack and the murder of a Catholic priest by two jihadists in northern France.

But in its ruling, the State Council said: “In the absence of such risks, the emotion and the concerns arising from terrorist attacks, especially the attack in Nice on July 14, are not sufficient to legally justify a ban.”

The so-called burkini bans never actually mention the word burkini, although they are clearly aimed at the garment which covers the hair but leaves the face visible and stretches down to the ankles.

The vague wording of the prohibitions has caused confusion.

Apart from the incident in the photographs in Nice, a 34-year-old mother of two told AFP on Tuesday she had been fined on the beach in the resort of Cannes wearing leggings, a tunic and a headscarf.

France was the first European country to ban the wearing of the Islamic face veil in public in 2010. </s> France’s highest administrative court has suspended a ban on the burkini in a Riviera coastal town after a challenge by rights groups.

The ruling from the state council suspends a single decree against full-body swimsuits issued by the mayor in the southern resort of Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice. But it is likely to set a precedent for other towns that have banned the swimwear on their beaches.

The state council ruled that the mayor did not have the right to issue a burkini ban – stating that local authorities could only restrict individual liberties if there was a “proven risk” to public order. It believed that proven risk had not been demonstrated.

The bans – made in the form of short-term mayoral decrees – began to be issued in a series of beach spots following the Bastille Day attack in Nice and the murder of a priest in Normandy.

They do not explicitly use the word burkini but ban “beachwear which ostentatiously displays religious affiliation”, citing reasons such as the need to protect public order, hygiene or French laws on secularism.

At a hearing before the state council on Thursday, lawyers for the rights groups in the Villeneuve-Loubet case argued that the bans were feeding fear and infringe on basic freedom. 



A lower court had ruled on Monday that the Villeneuve-Loubet ban was necessary to prevent public disorder. But the state council found that this did not hold up under French law. 



The row over burkinis had intensified after a woman in a headscarf was photographed on a beach in Nice removing a long-sleeved top while surrounded by armed police.

The city banned the burkini on its beaches last week, following about 15 seaside areas in south-east France where mayors had done the same.

The bans have divided France’s government and society and drawn anger abroad. The former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, campaigning for his party’s nomination to run again as president in 2017, used his first public rally this week to call for a nationwide ban on the swimsuits, while the Socialist government has become divided, with the prime minister and one of its leading feminist voices at cabinet-level taking opposing positions.

The burkini bans have prompted a row over the French principle of laïcité – secularism – amid accusations that politicians are twisting and distorting this principle for political gain, and using it to target Muslims.



The French republic is built on a strict separation of church and state, intended to foster equality for all private beliefs. In theory, the state is neutral in terms of religion and allows everyone the freedom to practise their faith as long as there is no threat to public order. </s> Activists protest outside the French embassy during, the "wear what you want beach party" in London on Thursday. The protest is against the French authorities clampdown on Muslim women wearing burkinis on the beach.

France's highest administrative court on Friday suspended a ban on full-body burkini swimsuits that has outraged Muslims and opened divisions within the government, pending a definitive ruling, the court said in a statement.

The Conseil d'Etat gave the ruling following a request from the League of Human Rights to overturn the burkini ban in the Mediterranean town of Villeneuve-Loubet on the grounds it contravenes civil liberties.

Under the French legal system, temporary decisions can be handed down before the court takes more time to prepare a judgement on the underlying legality of the case.
Turkmenistan bans the import of bikinis, shorts, and swimsuits.