- A group of about 100 women and men bathed fully clothed in Pedocin beach to show solidarity with Muslim women.
- Muslim women wearing burkini were prevented from swimming last week
- The protesters rejected claims that Muslim women’s clothing wasn’t “hygienic” and held signs that read “Does a dress or a cruise ship pollute more?”
One week after Muslim women donning burkinis were banned from swimming in Pedocin beach, a group of about one hundred women and men bathed fully clothed in the famous Italian beach on Sunday to show solidarity with Muslims.
The group rushed in a flash mob to the Lanterna lido which the people of Trieste familiarly call Pedocin, a historic place because it is divided into men’s and women’s sectors, Intrieste.com reported.
One of the women said “we too are wearing burkinis to say it was wrong to stop the other women from bathing”.
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According to Italian media, Muslim women wearing burkini couldn’t swim in the sea after a group of women started shouting “you can’t go in the water dressed like that” and prevented them from entering the water.
Hygienic
While some beachgoers defended the Muslim women, stating that they have a constitutional right to dress as they please; others backed the actions of the women harassing them claiming that what the women were doing wasn’t “hygienic.”
Sunday’s protesters rejected these claims, holding signs that read, “Does a dress or a cruise ship pollute more?”
Other signs read “Biodiversity is beautiful” and “At Pedocin we want to be in peace”, which means being all together.
Nurah Omar, vice president of the Islamic cultural association of Trieste, said it was discriminatory to prevent Muslim women from bathing in burkini.
“If a non-Muslim Italian woman had decided to go to the beach dressed or to cover up for health reasons or because she does not feel with his own body, there would have been no discussion.”
A burkini is a type of modesty swimsuit for Muslim women that was originally designed in Australia by Aheda Zanetti.
The suit follows the modesty regulations for women in Islamic Shari’ah, as it covers the whole body except the face, the hands, and the feet while being light enough for swimming.
Some Muslims scholars accept the burkini as meeting a commonly applied standard that requires a woman to cover all parts of her body except her hands and face (including covering her hair) when in mixed company.
Others are concerned that stretchy or clinging fabric reveals the outline of the body. Thus, they may also advocate that the head covering be long enough to cover the breasts, or that a skirt covers the hips.