Saturday, August 27, 2016

Burkini? Big Deal! You Don't Have to Be Muslim!!


I couldn't find a head to toe picture of me in my bathing suit, but as you can probably guess from this selfie here, it's more burkini than any classic tank, blouson, skirted, one or two-piece held up by skinny straps. Actually I do wear a two piece bathingsuit, but the top has a high neck, and the sleeves go past my elbow. Most of the time I wear it with a swim-skirt past my knees, that has sewn in shorts. The running joke is that I'm dressed up for a fancy outing. It really doesn't look like a bathing suit. And I guess you may be surprised that I wear it to female only swimming time in our local pool.

No, I'm not some sort of overmodest repressed nut-case. And I'm not Muslim.

  • I'm a religious Jew who adheres to the Jews Laws of Modesty, and wearing this sort of bathing suit, swimsuit as some call them now, means that I can walk around in public, from house to pool without a robe or having to change my clothes/cover up.
  • Another reason is health. I'm high risk for skin cancer, and besides slathering sunscreen on my neck, face etc, the shirt covers me well.
  • When I swim in our outdoor pool at night, I wear my swimming shorts and a top like this. At night the covering protects me from the cool breezes which used to make night swimming just too uncomfortable. At night I wear a heavy robe to go to and from my house and pool to both cover up and keep warm.
  • The "modest swimsuit" also makes it possible to swim when there's a male lifeguard and the rare occasion when I am at a "mixed swim." The special swimsuit fabrics provide more modest cover up and better protection from the sun, than a wet T-shirt.
Honestly, I don't see how wearing modest swimwear could be considered a security, moral or cultural problem. On this I'm with the Muslims!! The French are nuts!!

1 comment:

Shira Salamone said...

This is the best explanation that I've seen:

"Why the French Ban the Veil"

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/211702/french-veil-berman

My standing-on-one-foot version is that the French, because of their history, are very concerned about religious coercion. Americans have a completely different perspective--since both freedom of religion and the separation of "church" and state are enshrined in U.S. law, I think that many Americans tend to consider clothing choice a freedom-of-religion issue, rather than as a freedom *from* religion issue. I'd be curious to know where Sabras stand on this.