PARIS – France’s interior minister said Tuesday that he plans to challenge a rule change in Grenoble that allows women to swim in state-run pools in burkinis.

In France, critics perceive the all-in-one swimsuit, which is worn by some Muslim women to cover their bodies and hair while bathing, as a symbol of Islamisation.

On Monday, the Alpine city of Grenoble altered its pool rules to allow all forms of bathing suits, not just the traditional swimming costumes for ladies and trunks for men that were previously required.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin described the change as a “intolerable provocation” that was “contrary to our beliefs,” and said he has filed a judicial challenge to the new rules.

The government can dispute judgments it believes are eroding France’s stringent secular traditions, which are supposed to keep faiths separate from the state, under a new law voted by Parliament last year to combat “Islamist separatist.”

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In the summer of 2016, attempts by numerous municipal mayors in the south of France to outlaw the burkini on Mediterranean beaches sparked the first burkini controversy.

Because the restrictions were discriminatory, they were finally overturned.

Mayor Eric Piolle of Grenoble, one of the country’s most visible Green politicians who leads a broad left-wing coalition locally, has hailed the city’s decision as a victory.

“All we want is for ladies and men to be able to dress the way they want,” Piolle said on Monday on RMC.

Julien Bayou, the leader of the EELV party, stated that the decision had nothing to do with secularism rules, which require state authorities to remain impartial in religious affairs while ensuring citizens’ rights to freely practise their faith.

Burkinis are not prohibited in French public pools for religious reasons, but rather for sanitary ones, and swimmers are not required to conceal their religion while bathing.

“I want Muslim women to be able to practise, change, or not practise their religion, and I want them to be allowed to swim,” he continued. “I also want kids to be under less pressure to dress in a certain way.”

Grenoble isn’t the first city in France to alter its policies.