The French has been fighting against the wearing of religious scarves and Burkas by Muslim women for years. Now, French officials have taken on the Burkini — a loose swimsuit that covers Muslim women like a wetsuit with a hood. Burkinis have been banned in pools as more clothing than swimsuit. If you want to swim in France, you will don a bikini or at least a revealing swimsuit.
The test case for the Burkini occurred in Emerainville where staff insisted that burkinis were more a form of clothing than a swimsuit and thus barred on hygiene grounds.
The woman involved is a convert to Islam and bought the swimsuit in Dubai. The swimsuit are all the rage and available on the Internet, here. They come in “slim fit” and “modest fit.” Of course, a hundred years ago, even the modest fit would have been viewed as scandalous in the West.
Last June, President Nicolas Sarkozy mentioned the burka in a major speech and said “We cannot accept to have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity.”
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Ah, the joys of cultural ignorance and discrimination!
In Afghanistan, I am sure that the good President Nicolas Sarkozy’s opinion would be very relevant and true, but it is not so extreme in the West. What are you gonna do? Ah well. What do I know? Maybe I’m just biased ‘cos I’m a Christian, my best friend’s a Muslim and I believe in personal freedom.
“Last June, President Nicolas Sarkozy mentioned the burka in a major speech and said “We cannot accept to have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity.””
Should have really read: Last June, the President who is married and a known philanderer stated that he does not like to see women but scantly clothed. “I cannot stand to look at a female and not know what she looks like with her clothes off.” We the French have established the fashion and it is good for lechers like moi.”
I agree with jimirandall, they should be allowed to wear whatever they want. although that burkini thing is fertile ground for saturday night live.
I am not a lawyer and I don’t even play one on TV, so I may be wrong about this, and would appreciate being told if I am. I believe that as a matter of law you cannot consent to your own murder. I would extend that to the notion that you cannot consent to your own subjugation.
I cannot see any way that a requirement which applies only to women to wear clothing that covers the entire body and even, in the case of a burka, the face, is anything but the subjugation of women. I salute the French for insisting that they will not as a nation be a party to that which lessens the freedom of any person. Imagine, they think women count as people.
I have to agree with the ban because of legitimate hygienic reasons. Most of the public swimming pools I have visited, beginning in the 1950s, have required that you do not swim fully clothed and that you take a shower in your swimwear *before* entering the pool, for hygienic reasons. Clothes harbor E. coli, salmonella, and viruses, amongst other biological unpleasantries. The pool chlorine is less effective in disinfecting heavy clothing than that of bare skin or less thick and less expansive swim garments.
If she were swimming in a lake or the ocean, I see no problem, but not in the restricted confines of a public swimming pool.
Besides, we guys like to observe the contents of bikinis. Furthermore, real vitamin D comes from the skin/sunlight interaction…every*body* wins.
Well said Deborah, the Dutch banned the Burkha and the world court upheld the ban as I recall. All chains aren’t made of metal.
I checked out a number of Dutch immigration sites a while back and one of the more interesting tests (among several) they have deals with cultural sensitivity. The requester watches a film that lasts about 30 minutes depicting various cultural attributes common to Dutch society and is queried about how s/he feels about them. If you fail the test you don’t get to be a citizen. If you spit-up your popcorn during the part wherein homosexuals hold hands wellll, you probably aren’t a good candidate for citizenship etc.
No, I didn’t qualify- couldn’t pass other ‘tests’: too old and too sick. I don’t have a problem with that either. They seemed to have a good handle on what they wanted in candidates in order to advance the aims of the (generally very enlightened) state. Good on them.
If you let people in street clothes into swimming pools, you get a swimming pool full of dirt, sand, and leafs.
You could depend on the judgement of the pool attendant in those cases where it isn’t prima facie clear if that’s pool clothes (swim shorts and burkinis) or street clothes (shorts and dress), or you could make the general rule that swim clothes have to look like, well, swim clothes.
Most of Northern Europe uses the first option, most pool operators in France and Italy and Spain use the second option.
That has nothing to do with politics of any kind (women empowering of keeping Muslims down or whatever).
lets be fair. ban all swim suits.
at once!
The article is purposefully distorting the truth. Men in shorts are not even allowed in these pools for obvious hygienic reasons. If you allow women in burkini you may as well allow people in clothes. I’m sure on the beaches there are no such issues.
FFLEO,
I know you kid, but it does make me wonder if women in that part of the world have a measurable vitamin D deficiency.