In events that appear to mirror the moral policing of women’s clothing in countries like Saudi Arabia (where police officers have order women to cover themselves up), police in French resort towns have recently been ordering women to strip down, as part of the highly controversial “burkini ban.”
You should be weeping, France. pic.twitter.com/Vn54GE4xlr
— Hend Amry (@LibyaLiberty) August 23, 2016
A series of shocking images has circulated online today, showing a woman sunbathing on a beach in Nice, armed police surrounding her, and the woman removing a top with ¾-length sleeves covering some of her arms. It isn’t actually clear that the woman is wearing a burkini — the outfit looks more like black leggings and a blue top that matches her headscarf.
The Mayor of Cannes, another French beach resort that has implemented the ban, has ruled that: “Access to beaches and for swimming is banned to any person wearing improper clothes that are not respectful of good morals and secularism.” The Mayor adds that, “Beachwear which ostentatiously displays religious affiliation, when France and places of worship are currently the target of terrorist attacks, is liable to create risks of disrupting public order,” the BBC reports.
The original creator of the burkini, Aheda Zanetti — an Australian designer with Lebanese roots — has spoken out about the ban in a new interview with WWD. “I think it’s totally misunderstood,” she says. “I feel so sorry for the people who are going to be affected by it. The burkini was intended to integrate and bring people together. To give them the freedom of choice to wear something modest if they choose to be modest for whatever reason they need to be modest for. It should be happy and positive. It is turning something meant to give women the freedom of participating in health and fitness into a negative thing.”
Zanetti notes that, while 60% of her customers are Muslim women, many other women wish to cover up for various non-religious reasons. “I think the French need to understand what a burkini swimsuit is and what it’s there for,” she notes. “They can’t take a lifestyle away from a Muslim woman or any woman for that matter. The cancer patients, for example. If you are going to take away the right for them to protect their skin from the sun, what are you trying to do? Put them back inside their home?”
Expanding on the name of her creation, Zanetti says, “I thought my swimsuit is like a burqa and it’s also two-piece, like a bikini is. So came the term burkini. But it’s just a word. It doesn’t symbolize Islam or a Muslim woman, and it certainly doesn’t symbolize terror. It symbolizes freedom, flexibility, comfort. It symbolizes health and fitness. That’s what it should be judged upon.”
The ban hasn’t affected sales of Zanetti’s burkini styles. In fact, the designer told the BBC that online sales have actually jumped 200%.
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Text Charlotte Gush