A French woman has been banned from wearing a “burkini” in a swimming pool outside Paris, the Daily Telegraph says.
The 35-year-old, who can only be identified as Carole, was ordered to leave by the chief lifeguard in the town pool at Emerainville, on the eastern outskirts of Paris.
She was refused entrance to the pool on the basis that she was breaking hygiene rules, which apply to all French public pools, according to the Times Online.
The rules indicate that women must wear swimsuits and men must wear trunks rather than shorts, as they are said to harbour more bacteria.
However, Carole went straight to the police and media after the incident had happened. She accused the pool officials of illegal discrimination, saying: “Quite simply, this is segregation, and I will fight to try to change things.”
The police refused her complaint on the grounds that the lifeguard was simply enforcing a rule that applies to all French public pools.
Carole, a traditional French woman, converted to Islam at the age of 17. She said she bought her “burkini” in Dubai during her holiday. The “burkini” is derived from the words of bikini and burka, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Despite the allusion to the Afghan burka, the swimsuit leaves the face uncovered. The body is clad in a track-suit-like tunic and coat and the head and neck are covered with a cross between a hijab and diver’s balaclava helmet.
The Lebanese-Australian designer’s product has quickly become a hit in the Gulf and has caused trouble in public pools in Europe and North America.
Carole’s ejection was regarded as contributing to the explicit battle between fundamentalist Muslim and a state that has banned head-cover from schools and may curb face-covering in public.
Carole said: “I thought that it could enable me to enjoy the pleasure of bathing without uncovering myself, as Islam recommends,” she told Le Parisien newspaper.
“I understand that it might shock people, but I am annoyed because I have been told that it is a political matter. I didn’t set out to cause a stir. My only aim was to be able to go swimming with my children.”
The local authorities insisted that no politics were involved. “The lady was almost fully dressed,” Daniel Guillanume, the head of sports facilities for the Seine-et-Marne department, said.
He added: “The personnel simply applied the rules that are in effect in all pools in France.”
According to Daniel Guillanume, the view is not shared by politicians who want tougher measures to oppose a rise in body-covering by strict Muslim women, and Muslims demanding segregated sessions for men and women at pools and other sports facilities.
However, André Gerin, a Communist MP from the Rhône area said: “Maybe you can see the woman’s face in this ridiculous swimsuit, but it is obviously a provocation by a militant. Going straight to the police station is proof that there is a political project behind this outfit. No doubt this is the start of a new problem.”
Mr Gerin heads a 32-member parliamentary inquiry that opened in June to review the possibility of a law to bar Muslim women from wearing the face-covering niqab in public.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy stirred fundamentalist anger last month when he sided with the review, saying that such a dress was not a symbol of faith, but a sign of women’s subservience and that it had “no place in France”, Time Online reports.
No comments:
Post a Comment