Two Muslim women thrown out of pool for wearing 'burkinis'
The women had plunged into the pool at le Port Leucate wearing full body swimsuits, including a head-covering hijab veil, but were immediately told to get out of the water.
The incident occurred less than two weeks after French MPs voted to ban body and face-covering garments, including the full Islamic veil, from public places including the street.
Under the new law, due to come into force early next year, women face a fine or community service for hiding their faces in public and those forcing women to wear the full veil risk prison.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has described the garment as "not welcome" in the staunchly secular French republic.
In this case, the women at the Rives des Corbieres holiday camp were told to leave as they had breached the camp's rules allowing only conventional bikinis or one-piece swimsuits "for hygiene reasons".
Police received conflicting accounts of what happened next.
The pool's lifeguard filed a complaint saying the husband of one of the women threatened him with a bowling ball.
The husband filed a complaint claiming security personnel beat him up.
Marie-Paule Bardeche, a regional government official said: "This is above all an issue stemming from the holiday centre's internal regulations, in place for hygiene and sanitary reasons.
"Access to the swimming pool is reserved for ordinary swimsuit wearers. Even long shorts are forbidden." Last year a Muslim woman was banned from wearing a "burkini" at a public pool in a Paris suburb, also for hygiene reasons.
She later tried and failed to sue the council for discrimination.
Police have this year also stopped and fined two women for wearing a burka while driving, saying it contravened road rules as it impaired their field of vision.
The holiday camp where the burkini incident took place is run by a staunchly secular organisation called the "Aude federation of secular works".
I would like to know which were these hygene reasons, because I think wearing a long swimsuit, both burkinis and long shorts, cannot bring any sanitary problem. But the pool should have given advise so that people wouldn't have gone with full body swimsuits, which were worn since more or less forty years ago in Spain.
ReplyDeleteIt is also irrational to drive wearing a burqa, because your field of vision is much smaller and you could have an accident or run over someone which crosses the street.
First of all, I think that this incident is a conflict between religions. It's not true that wearing a burkini is unhygienic, because for some reason they mix chlorine in the water, to kill bacteria. I think that what they've done is a bit racist, they're discriminating them and I think that in a civilized society, everybody has the right to wear whatever they want, because we've to be tolerant, we're all equals. But in the case of the two women driving with the burka it's true that it's very dangerous, because it extremely reduces their field of vision.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with the ban on women wearing veils or whatever clothes they want. If Islam is their religion and culture, and if they, choose to dress traditionally, then they have the right to do so.
ReplyDeleteAnd the same thing applies to burkinis – Musulman women have the same right to swim as other people, but if their culture and religion say that they must not show certain parts of their bodies and they agree, we must respect them, their religions and their decisions. I do not think that wearing clothes for swimming is less hygienic than "normal" bikinis ore one-piece swimsuits.
On the other hand, I think that burqas can be dangerous for driving, because they reduce the field of vision, which might cause accidents.
I'm disagree with the prohibition of the burkini because each person has the right to dress as they want, provided you do not provoke other people, I think they take very xenophobic solutions and should not be so, although it is true depending on which situations, it is debatable whether the use of this garment is correct or not , as in driving or when being able to identify that person in case it is necessary. I think there are more serious problems and that they should pay more attention, such as violence or theft, instead of being so xenophobic and look different to people from other cultures.
ReplyDeleteI'm completely disagree with this ban because everybody, regardless of their religion have the right to choose how to dress and how far capped. As my colleagues have said, it seems more a war between religions and racism samples.Even so I must say that the veil can be a problem in various situations such as driving and Personal identifcation but not at the time of swimming in a pool because it is so respectable as who would want to put a thong.We must begin to respect what is different from us and realize that these differences don't make us better or worse.
ReplyDeleteI totally disagree with the aplication of this ban, because first of all, it's a little bit elaborated from the government that they decide to prohibit the use of burkinis when they're on their completely right to wear it when they're going swimming, and I don't think they're unhygienic, only because they have to cover all their body. I agree with Leo that it's more a question of religion's conflicts than any other reasons, and we'd have to respect the aspects which take part of the Islamic religion and also if they're not affecting other people. But on the other hand, it's true that in some cases, the burka can perjudicate the correct traffic flow if they don't have the adequate field of vision, so I desagree with their use when you're driving.
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ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, everyone has the right of dressing as they want, so I can't understand why in this case with burkini is different. We can consider this an act of racism or as other classmates have mention it can be a religion matter. I think this is wrong and in my opinion this band should be annulled. Even though I think Islamic people should relaise that it can be dangerous driving with a burka, thats why I think that in this case they should be penalized.
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