{"id":80168,"date":"2016-08-24T01:38:39","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T05:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=80168"},"modified":"2025-01-18T03:06:36","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T08:06:36","slug":"frances-burkini-bans-sexist-liberating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/08\/24\/frances-burkini-bans-sexist-liberating\/","title":{"rendered":"Are France\u2019s burkini bans sexist, or liberating?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Even<\/a>
Even though it\u2019s only worn by a tiny minority, the burkini \u2013 a wetsuit-like garment that covers the torso, limbs and head \u2013 has prompted a national discussion about Islam and women\u2019s bodies. (Photo: Giorgio Montersino<\/a>\/Flickr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PARIS \u2013 Male officials are dictating what women can wear on French beaches \u2013 and people across a wide swath of French society say that’s a good thing.<\/p>\n

Decrees issued by several mayors this month ban the body-encompassing burkini swimsuit, which France\u2019s secular political class says subjugates women and is incompatible with a country whose motto celebrates equality and freedom.<\/p>\n

To many Muslim women, that\u2019s pure hypocrisy. They see the burkini bans themselves as sexist, not to mention racist and a reactionary backlash to terrorism fears.<\/p>\n

Even though it\u2019s only worn by a tiny minority, the burkini \u2013 a wetsuit-like garment that covers the torso, limbs and head \u2013 has prompted a national discussion about Islam and women\u2019s bodies. At least five towns have banned them this summer, and others are threatening to follow suit.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Manuel Valls says the swimsuit reflects a worldview based on \u201cthe enslavement of women.\u201d In an interview published Wednesday in the La Provence newspaper, he said the belief that women are \u201cimpure and that they should therefore be totally covered\u201d was part of an \u201carchaic vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is not compatible with the values of France,\u201d Valls said.<\/p>\n

Much of the French political class, from the left to the far right, agrees \u2013 including the government\u2019s proudly feminist women\u2019s affairs minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe burkini is… a particular vision of the place of the woman. It cannot be considered only as a question of fashion or individual liberty,\u201d Laurence Rossignol said on Europe-1 radio.<\/p>\n

But Rim-Sarah Alouane, a religious freedom expert at the University of Toulouse, says the anti-burkini brigade is relying on outdated ideas about Islam to stigmatize France’s No. 2 religion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen\u2019s rights imply the right for a woman to cover up,\u201d said Alouane, a Muslim who was born and raised in France. The burkini \u201cwas created by Western Muslim women who wanted to conciliate their faith and desire to dress modestly with recreational activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is more French than sitting on a beach in the sand? We are telling Muslims that no matter what you do…<\/p>\n

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we don\u2019t want you here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Local mayors cite multiple reasons for their burkini bans, including the difficulty of rescuing bathers in copious clothing.<\/p>\n

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But their main justification is security concerns after a season marred by deadly Islamic extremist attacks.<\/p>\n

Critics warn the bans could enflame religious and social tensions in a country already on edge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will accentuate tension within French society,\u201d Leyla Dakhli, a French-Tunisian professor of Arab history, said. \u201cWe are teaching the French public to associate a woman in (a) burkini with the terrorist who assassinates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the brouhaha over burkinis, French laws banning face-covering veils in public and headscarves in schools \u2013 also based on view that they violate French secularism and oppress women \u2013 had alienated many among France\u2019s 5 million Muslims.<\/p>\n

Violent extremists also have cited the earlier bans as one of their justifications for targeting France.<\/p>\n

Dakhli said the bans reflect a colonial-era view of Muslims. While some women today may wear burkinis at the behest of a man, others freely choose them for reasons of personal faith, she said<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a question of whether the veil signifies enslavement or independence. There are as many answers… as there are women in the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The bans, which carry small fines for violators, reflect an unusually fierce attachment to secularism in this country, and have perplexed people outside France.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoliticians talk constantly about integration and inclusion, and then proceed to kick out to the fringes the very women they claim are oppressed and excluded from society,\u201d Remona Aly of the Exploring Islam Foundation wrote in The Guardian this week.<\/p>\n

In other European countries, burkinis are rare, though some public pools restrict them \u2013 like baggy men\u2019s swim trunks \u2013 for reasons of hygiene.<\/p>\n

In neighboring Belgium, however, Nadia Sminate of the right-leaning Flemish N-VA party, chair of the Radicalization Committee in the Flemish Parliament, wants burkinis off public beaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not think women want to walk around on the beach with such a monstrosity in the name of their faith,\u201d she told Flemish daily De Standaard.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

France\u2019s prime minister said that while he supports local bans \u2013 \u201cin the face of provocation, the nation must defend itself,\u201d he told La Provence \u2013 he is not in favor of a national law against burkinis.<\/p>\n

Valls called for calm, especially in Corsica, where a clash broke out over the weekend between local residents and bathers of North African origin.<\/p>\n

Some reports said it started because a young man took a photo of a woman in a burkini, though the exact circumstances of the incident remain unclear.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Lorne Cook in Brussels, Sylvie Corbet in Paris and reporters around Europe contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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