A SMALL town French mayor has revealed he will ignore a court decision declaring the burkini ban illegal despite backlash over the controversial prohibition. 

In an interview with CNN, Cogolin Mayor Marc Etienne Lansade told beachgoers: "If you don't want to live the way we do, don't come."

Lansade, a member of the nation’s right-wing National Front party, went on to insist beachgoers must “behave in the way that people behave in the country that accepted you, and that is it.

"If you are accepted in Rome – do like Romans do," he said, continuing, "go in Saudi Arabia and be naked and see what will happen to you."

Mayor Lansade, who intends to enforce the ban until September 15, said the burkini is “humiliating for the women that are wearing them."

He added: "I don't think that many of them do that [wear a burkini] because they want to – but because they have to.

"We have to protect those people."

The mayor's words come after a ruling by France’s highest administrative court outlining that mayors do not have the right to outlaw the use of burkinis.

The ruling came after over 30 towns in France opted to ban the burkini – a swimsuit mostly worn by Muslim women.

A number of officials believe the ban on the swimsuit is in response to escalating fears about radical Islamic terrorism.

'I don't think that many of them do that [wear a burkini] because they want to'

Just last month, an ISIS fanatic behind the wheel of a truck killed over 80 people in Nice on Bastille Day.

A week later, attackers brutally knifed an 86-year-old priest to death in Normandy.

Human rights activists insist the ban on burkinis is illegal, and that any efforts to prohibit use of the garment are Islamophobic.

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One such group, the Collective Against Islamophobia in France, informed CNN they plan to sue each municipality currently enforcing the ban on the swimsuit.

Group president Marwan Muhammad said: "These mayors don't want to lose face in front of extreme-right voters.

"The CCIF will methodically remind them of the law."

Meanwhile, Amnesty International Europe Director John Dalhuisen praised the ruling in a statement following the court proceedings.

He said: "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.”

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