After over a dozen French towns have banned women from wearing ‘burkinis’ – a swimsuit for women that leaves just the face, hands and feet exposed – a demand for the product has risen 200 percent worldwide, BBC News reported.
Aheda Zanetti, who lives in Australia and owns the trademark on ‘burkini,’ says online sales skyrocketed.
“No man in this entire world can tell us what to wear or what not to wear,” she told BBC News.
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On Aug. 12, the mayor of Cannes banned burkinis, calling them a “symbol of Islamic extremism,” following the July attack in Nice, for which ISIS claimed responsibility. Several other towns have since joined in on the ban, and any woman caught disobeying is charged a fine.
Photos emerged Tuesday showing several male police officers forcing one woman to remove her head covering on a beach in Nice.
The woman, who gave just her first name, Siam, said she was also fined in Cannes, according to The Guardian.
“I was sitting on the beach with my family,” she said. “I was wearing a classic headscarf. I had no intention of swimming.”
The ban has citizens divided, with some saying that burqas go against women’s rights, while others argue that banning the garments amounts to Islamophobia.
French Prime Minister Manual Valls has backed the burkini bans, but he says he’s not interested in creating a nationwide law against them.
This article originally appeared on People.
