Swimsuit season brings anxiety to many women. The typical worry has more to do with what is revealed than what is concealed. But for Muslim women who want to swim and sun and do so modestly, adequate coverage is the issue.
Enter the burqini, a head-to-toe swimsuit for active Muslim women. It's a flattering, sporty garment that resembles a wetsuit with a swing top.
Great idea, right?
Not in Emerainville, a suburb of Paris, where a Muslim woman has been banned from her local swimming pool for wearing one.
Officials say the issue isn't religion but hygiene. France's unusually strict rules prohibit street-type or baggy clothing to be worn while swimming in public pools.
Yet a USA Today article explains that public sentiment is running strong against the burqa:
The issue of religious attire is a hot topic in France, where head-to-toe burqas or other full-body coverings worn by Muslim fundamentalists are in official disfavor.
French lawmakers recently proposed a ban on the burqa and other voluminous Muslim attire. President Nicolas Sarkozy backs the move, saying such clothing makes women prisoners.
The larger issue, however, is individual choice.
Would there be opposition to the burqini if it were worn by a conservative Christian, a woman disfigured by burns and skin grafts, a survivor of breast cancer or a senior citizen?
Non-Muslim women who are reluctant or unable to expose their skin, yet still want to enjoy a cool swim on a hot day, are embracing the burqini. The two women who designed the full body suit -- Australian retailer Aheda Zanetti and California microbiologist Shereen Sabet -- say the garment has wide appeal.
A TIME article from July 2007 confirms their claim:
Joanne Martinez, 37, of San Clemente, Calif., bought a Hawaiian-print ensemble to stave off chills during late-night dips. Her mother Norma Suarez, 69, got a suit because her medications make her skin sun-sensitive. "We're both hooked," says Martinez. Meanwhile, Kathleen Petroff, 59, of Helendale, Calif., bought her[s]...for a snorkeling trip, after weight gain from multiple-sclerosis treatment made her old suit unappealing. If not for Sabet's design, she says, "I would have missed swimming with the dolphins."
In France, the officially expressed concern is that a burqini could be worn all day, collecting germs and bacteria from food and sweat, and thus contaminate pool waters.
Yet the same thing can be said about a bathing suit.
Since showering before entering a pool is common practice in both France and the United States, government officials should think again before banning a garment that, when used appropriately for swimming only, could bring greater freedom to women who want to put more than a toe in the water.
Burqini creator Aheda Zanetti and Muslim lifeguard
© Matt King/Getty Images
Comments
Hmm. France doesn’t use chlorine in its pools?
Ok… I’ll be the first to say it… the French have a concern over hygiene?
I can see it having appeal for women who have been disfigured or just don’t want to show their cellulite off in public.
But those same women can buy a wetsuit!
The whole ‘hooded’ thing seems very constricting and I can’t imagine swimming in a full body suit WITH a hood.
Maybe if they made it look more like a wetsuit in paisley print or something attractive, the pools wouldn’t reject it. They could always wear a typical bathing cap if they have to cover their heads.
It seems like a lot of fuss over nothing and it could be resolved if someone budged a little.
OMG, this is not fair. The burquinis are nothing to fuss over — why the prejudice?? When you see the Olympics contestants, they have wetsuits that look fairly similar to these (except of course it doesn’t go all the way down to the toes). As for the hood — what is the biggie? Isn’t it just a combination of a regular swimcap and a nun’s habit? As for the person advocating that the suits should be “paisely or more attractive” in order to convince the pools to allow it — that is ridiculous! They are banning this woman from swimming because her attire isn’t ATTRACTIVE enough?? When Sarkozy says that the burqua is banned in France because it makes women prisoners, doesn’t he think that this kind of discrimination further imprisons French Muslim women? Now they have to choose between their deeply-held religious beliefs versus a little freedom of going for a swim?! What do you think someone will choose if they value their relationship with God, and that relationship demands this kind of attire?? Is that fair? Come on. As a non-Muslim woman, even I am offended. I can only imagine what Muslims are feeling about this!
Religious intolerance in the West? Boo hoo. I can’t help thinking Muslims are getting off lightly in comparison. If I wore my traditional bathing suit at a pool in a ‘muslim country’ I would be hauled off by the modesty police and subjected to humiliation and physical punishment, possibly jailed. But of course, we are forced to respect their wishes when in their country. How come it doesn’t work both ways? How come if we don’t like their cultural displays with the burqua, veil etc. (and it is not religious, it is cultural and varies from country to country within the muslim world) we are intolerant? At least we don’t give them 40 lashes for wearing inappropriate clothing.
hi, there, just a couple of comments in response:
1. no, a wetsuit is not a feasible alternative for a modest swimsuit. the neoprene wetsuit is just too thick and too tight to wear for every day swimming at the local pool. it was originally designed to keep the swimmer, snorkeler, scuba diver, and surfer WARM in the cool ocean waters. it was never designed as swimwear. that is why light, thin fabrics–just like those used to make bikinis and bathing suits–must be used even for full coverage swimwear. even the thinnest 2mm neoprene wetsuits can be too warm to wear outside of the ocean; and b/c wetsuits are skin tight, overheating is a very likely possibility in a regular swimming pool environment.
2. in response to ShirleyInOz, actually, places like egypt that see a LOT of european and u.s. american tourists have ended up catering to their nudist practices. there are beaches in egypt that not even the natives visit b/c they are known as the “naked tourist beaches”. so, the westerners end up sun bathing in egypt as they do in their own home countries without the fear of arrest, harrassment, punishment, or jailings. it’s not true to claim that western tourists who wear little at the muslim beach get punished. please check your facts.
in places like jordan, actually, it turns out, that the law bans anything BUT the bikini; and in lebanon, well, lebanon is a pretty liberal place to begin with and you won’t be able to tell that you are in a muslim country there. in saudi arabia, there are foreigner compounds that are off-limits to the native muslim population, so the foreigners can do and wear whatever the heck they want. in algeria, again, there has been a push against traditional muslim practice, so the beaches there are also full of half naked people, despite the majority muslim population. so, once again, tourists don’t get punished for wearing little clothing at the beach in north african countries.
also, i doubt any westerners would want to visit strict muslim countries, like iran, and choose to sunbathe publicly. westerners don’t go to places like iran or saudi arabia for the beaches anyway and you won’t find such cases as you have claimed.
so, before you make a baseless claim, please check your facts.
thank you for your time.
–s–
I have Multiple Sclerosis and am too disabled to put on a wet suit let alone too fat. The Burqini is the only way my doctors will let me go in the sun or water. I’d rather not have people see the muscle spasms in my legs while in a one piece suit. The bottom line is some people want/need it, it is swim suit material and usable by the handicapped so people need to lay off.