Arwa Mahdawi: The French are obsessed with the burkini - and it's all getting a bit embarrassing

Also: French court rules in favour of burkini ban (Euronews)

______________________________________________________________________

Source: The Guardian

The French are obsessed with the burkini – and it’s all getting a bit embarrassing

The world is burning and France is fixated on whether women wear long sleeves to have a swim – a furore with obvious roots in the county’s deep Islamophobia

Arwa Mahdawi
Tue 21 Jun 2022 14.52 BST
Last modified on Tue 21 Jun 2022 18.12 BST

Hello and welcome to the Get a Grip prize, which I just invented. The GAG award is given on an ad hoc basis to a country doing a standout job of humiliating itself on the global stage by fixating on something ridiculous while the world burns. The award honours those who seem to have lost all sense of perspective and gently urges them to try worrying about something more important.

There are many contenders for the inaugural GAG award, but I have decided to give it to France. There is plenty happening in France, yet huge swathes of the populace are still exerting embarrassing amounts of energy arguing about how much flesh you need to show in order to set foot in a public pool or resort. The French are obsessed (OBSESSED!) with debating the question of appropriate swimwear and it is getting very cringe.

More specifically, the French are getting their knickers in a twist over burkinis. The head-to-toe swimsuit, most often associated with Muslim women, was banned in a number of French towns several years ago. This ban has been strictly enforced and seems to have been extended to anyone wearing more clothes than the state deems strictly necessary. In 2016, for example, armed French police made headlines when they forced a Muslim woman on the beach in Nice to remove some of her clothing and issued her a ticket stating that she wasn’t wearing “an outfit respecting good morals and secularism”. As every good secularist knows, the way you demonstrate good morals is with a bit of sideboob.

Burkinis disappeared from the headlines for a bit owing to more pressing issues such as the global pandemic and war in Ukraine. I regret to report that they are back in the news because, last month, the city of Grenoble decided to let people swim in burkinis. A backlash followed this common-sense decision. The far-right leader Marine Le Pen declared that green-lighting burkinis was “how Islamist fundamentalists take over”. (Got to keep those fundamentalists at bay by persecuting any woman who wants to wear long sleeves for a swim.) Meanwhile, the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, described Grenoble city council’s policy as an “unacceptable provocation”. Speaking last week to National Public Radio in the US, the mayor of Grenoble noted that the burkini decision “touched some very intense emotions for people”. With all due respect, those people ought to find a therapist to deal with those intense emotions. If you are triggered by a woman not showing her bare legs in public, the problem isn’t Islam, it’s you.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/21/french-obsessed-burkini-france-women-long-sleeves-swim-islamophobia

______________________________________________________________________

Source: Euronews with AFP

French court rules in favour of burkini ban

By Euronews with AFP • Updated: 21/06/2022 - 16:14

France's highest administrative court has upheld a nationwide ban on the wearing of "burkini" swimming costumes in public pools.

Authorities in Grenoble had challenged the ban on the full-body swimsuit, which is typically worn by some Muslim women to uphold their faith.

The city's municipal council had sparked nationwide controversy in May when it relaxed its rules on the swimwear allowed in public pools.

But the French Conseil d’Etat said on Tuesday allowing the burkini would "undermine the principle of neutrality of public services".

Grenoble mayor Eric Piolle has argued that people using public services, such as swimming pools, should be allowed to dress as they please.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.euronews.com/2022/06/21/french-court-rules-in-favour-of-burkini-ban


Karima, wearing a full-body burkini swimsuit, swims in Cannes after the call to support the wearing of burkinis by businessman and political activist Rachid Nekkaz. (Eric Gaillard/Reuters)