Today has been the hottest day in France since records began. The climate change implications of this are terrifying, and the country has been sweltering for the last few days. We are having a heatwave here in the UK too, but we’re in the 20s. France hit 45.1 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) today. Schools have closed and people have died in several European countries, attributed to the scorching weather.
Understandably, many people flocked to the country’s popular public pools to cool down. Unlike swimming in lakes and canals, a practice many have been warned about, especially in France, a public pool offers a safe environment to get a bit of refreshing water on your bits. It’s the perfect way to control your body temperature and have some fun.
However, a few years ago, France made headlines when women wearing burkinis (swimming costumes that cover the legs, arms and hair as well as the body) were removed from a public beach. The costumes were banned following some terrorist incidents (because we all know that it’s easy to hide a gun or a bomb in a swimming costume) and, although a court overrode the original ban, individual municipalities have been able to make their own rules about whether burkinis are banned items of clothing. Full-face veils were banned way back in 2011 so France has not always been kind to Muslim women wearing what they want to wear.
This week, women who are sick of the burkini ban in Grenoble got together and, wearing the garment, went swimming. Police were called and they received fines and warnings, and the city responded by closing down the two public swimming pools. It’s hard to describe this as anything short of a massive overreaction. Women didn’t want to show off their bare skin when swimming in the blistering heat, so we’d better call in the cops?
France is a country that is fiercely protective of its secular values. However, as the European country with the highest proportion of Muslims, it has had to contend with some difficult choices. Proponents of banning the veil and the burkini often say that they are doing it to liberate women from oppressive men in an oppressive religion. But if you “liberate” a woman to the degree that she can’t wear what she needs to wear to go out in public, then she is pretty bloody confined.
If a woman, for whatever reason, does not want other people to see her hair, she should be allowed to cover it up. If she wants her stomach on show, she should be allowed to wear crop tops. If showing her face is difficult for her, she should have the option of covering it. And if she wants to swim in a two-piece bikini (also banned in France), then she should be able to go for it. Equally, I will go on record to say that men should be able to swim in boxer shorts (banned in France for hygiene reasons, and the only ban on what men are allowed to wear that a cursory search presented me with. They have to wear Speedos in a public pool, god forbid).
It’s the only way
If a woman does not feel able or willing to show her bare skin off then she can only go swimming if she wears a burkini or equivalent garment. I can think of plenty of non-religious women who would appreciate something with that degree of coverage, and plenty of religious women too.
She is prevented from swimming – from taking part in a public activity that everyone else is allowed to do – if she does not want to show off her body, and that is discriminatory.
Security concerns are blatantly nonsense. Have you seen a burkini? You couldn’t hide anything dangerous in one – they offer great coverage but aren’t baggy or full of mysterious pockets. And the oppression argument only works if a ban gets Muslim women to participate in society in a more open and active way. This is the opposite of what a ban on modest clothing does; instead, it makes women who want to cover up (or, yes, even those who are forced to by repressive husbands or fathers) stay in the house, not see anybody and not participate in wider society. That’s not a win for those women. And it’s only a win for society if society’s goal is to shut Muslim women out of the way and never see or hear from them again.
Far be it from me to suggest that that is the goal of anti-Islam protesters, but what if it is? Well, it’s only kind-of working. Because the women who wore the burkini to the Grenoble swimming pool are going to do it again on Sunday. And presumably again and again and again until the law changes. And, if I was local to them and had a plus size burkini to hand, I might just join them. For the principle of the thing.
Photo: Sean Loyless