Banning burqinis means a ban on emancipation

The mayor of Cannes has banned so called burqinis from his beaches because he connects them to terrorism, in the same week the female Egyptian beach volleyball team in Rio was criticized for wearing body suits instead of bikinis.

With the fight against ISIS and its radical strain of Islam leading to attacks everywhere in the world, not only the burqa that completely covers women is under fire, but also clothes Muslim women put on to dress modestly during sports and leisure-time.

Long before ISIS started to impose first the face covering niqaab and then the completely covering burqa on women, tradition just as much as Islam made women dress modestly.

Often it was the combination of habits, the pressure of social control and a conservative society that made women cover up, although not as completely as ISIS made obligatory.

Recently, I was in an open air swimming pool at a hotel in the Kurdish capital Erbil, watching two women getting into the water dressed in pants and top, although their hair was uncovered.

Years ago, I would have asked myself if they perhaps had forgotten to bring a bathing suit, but having seen women in Jordan and Egypt take a dip in the sea fully clothed, this thought does not even cross my mind anymore.

These women were just looking to find some relief from the sweltering heat, and using the pool as a kind of big bathtub to cool down in.

This is very different from the woman I saw a couple of weeks before, who was covered from head to toe in what I now know to be a burqini, who was obviously in the water to train.

She had put a peg on her nose, and was swimming laps under water, with a man in a suit whom I took to be her husband urging her on.

I was reminded of the time I myself bought an Islamic swimsuit in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, such as had only just been introduced there, in order to give Muslim women in Egypt the chance to learn to swim and enjoy the seaside.

On a quiet beach I tried it out, trying to swim, but it mostly reminded me of swimming fully clothed for my Dutch swimming diploma, which I found just as uncomfortable.

Yet I can understand why this swimsuit with legs, arms and skirt was developed, because those who dip into the sea in a T-shirt, find it clings to you so much that it actually accentuates the body shape it is supposed to hide.

Listening to the mayor of Cannes, who sees the burqini as the uniform of extremist Islam, and noting that the ban on the garment did not get turned down by the court and even is copied elsewhere along the French coast, I realize how huge the gap has become between our communities.

Only a generation ago, our mothers in the West were just as traditional in their dress codes as most of the Muslim women of today, and when I was a teenager I was heavily criticized for wearing shorts, then called hot pants.

In the West, the dress codes changed, but yet, it did not bring the freedom promised.

Those seem to be still as stifling as in my mother’s time: If you do not wear a bikini on the beach, or perhaps shorts and a top at the most, then you do not fit in.

The Dutch women beach volleyball team showed that they understood this, by playing an Olympic match in Rio wearing body suits under their orange bikini tops; showing that to compete, you can just as well be clad like the Egyptian team as dressed in a bikini.

It is time the West realizes that it is not only imposing its own dress codes as strict rules, but also ignoring that this is stifling possible emancipation.

It is well known that with the introduction of the much hated hijab in Iran, the number of women getting a university degree sky rocketed, as their fathers felt that with the scarf it was safe enough for them to go and study.

As a result, many Iranian women now play a role in education and government, leading the emancipation on – as yet within the boundaries of their society, but overstepping those soon, I predict.

Look at the woman in the Erbil swimming pool doing her laps – that was only possible because she covered up so her husband felt comfortable with it.

That banned burqini also is part of a movement of emancipation; as it allows women to swim and enjoy the sea who before could not because their culture does not allow them to strip to a bikini in public.

So thank you but not really, Mr Mayor of Cannes, for imposing the western dress code as binding for all, and ignoring the true face of the clothes, that help along the same women’s liberation that you declare to support.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.