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Muslim women seen policed on French beach for "inappropriate" swimwear

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Last week controversy erupted over the ban of burkinis in not 1, not 2, but a whopping 15 French towns, in a spate of what many thought of as veiled Islamophobia. Since then online sales of the full-body Islamic swimsuit  sky-rocketed in France. 

The Guardian reports that the designer claiming the trademark of the burkini and burqini, Aheda Zanetti, said that the controversy surrounding this ban has been good publicity for her product as her online sales are apparently up a staggering 200%. Zanetti, an Australian-Lebanese designer, conceptualised the very first burkini over 10 years ago. 

The BBC reports Zanetti’s original intention behind the garment was for Muslim women to be able to have the freedom to enjoy and partake in the Australian beach lifestyle. 

According to The Independent, non-Muslim women are now increasingly purchasing this swimsuit for an array of reasons. Predominantly because this light-weight, quick-drying garment serves as excellent protective gear to guard against the sun. But many women are buying and wearing it in solidarity with Muslim women who have been banned from wearing it in France. Zanetti notes that this shows that race and religion truly doesn’t matter.

Yet harassment of Muslim women on French beaches continues. A Mail Online article recently went viral showing a shocking series of snaps taken on a beach in Nice. The pictures show beefy police officers standing over a Muslim woman instructing her to remove her burkini right there and then. Another scene shows police waiting for a group of Muslim women swimming in the ocean to come out - then warning them about wearing headscarves

A video embedded in the article also shows an incident of a police officer pointing a canister of pepper spray at a woman wearing the now outlawed burkini. 

The man who can do no wrong in my eyes, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, dismissed the thought of having such a ban in his country after being asked about its possibility, saying it imposes on individual rights and choices. 

To Indian author, Arundhati Roy, this is also the point - it's all about coercion. It's fundamentally wrong to coerce a woman in or out of a garment - be it a burqa, a burkini or her underwear. It is about individual rights and choices. However, above all, the banning is an act of cultural imperialism; and to police Muslim women in this way is an act of violence against them. "It simply cannot be read outside of a context on intense Islamophobia", says Prof Shireen Hassim of the University of the Witwatersrand.

Now we’ll probably see more and more images of European, non-Muslim women wearing the burkini – be it in solidarity or to protect their skin. Yet the crux of the issue is still rooted in the fact that these women won’t be seen as “threatening”. Solidarity or not, Muslim women are still targeted and disrespected for being Muslim, not because of what they have on. The Daily Beast asks why no one is batting an eye-lid when it comes to habit-wearing sisters at the beach. Exactly.


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