French Ban Burkinis

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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