“Burkini” Ban Accomplishes Nothing Positive

There are many things a nation can do to protect its culture, but France’s ban on the burkini (full-body bathing suit) only adds to a perceived image of bigotry and does nothing to help the plight of Muslim women.

Lionnel Luca, the mayor of Villeneuve-Loubet:  “In France, one does not come to the beach dressed to display one’s religious convictions, especially as they are false convictions that the religion does not demand.”¹

To quote the famous duo of Perry Mason and Hamilton Burger in the 1950’s and ‘60’s television series, “Perry Mason”:  “This is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.”  While some in the West may view this garment as another example of Islam’s “enslavement of women,”²  there are many other Islamic traditional mistreatments of women far more deserving of our concern.

The ban on burkinis says something else about common western attitudes.  It’s not enough that today’s hedonistic society wants no restraint on immodesty, now they have to stretch to complaining about excessive modesty?

OK, if an ISIS sympathizer uses this bathing suit to hide weapons used in an attack, then some sort of security measures may need to be put into place.  Until then, worry about real dangers like Euro open borders, homegrown terrorists, “honor” killings, etc.

 

 ¹ – “France PM backs burkini bans as three more towns consider outlawing garments,” by Samuel Osborne and Alexandra Sims, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-pm-backs-burkini-bans-as-three-more-towns-consider-outlawing-garments-a7195136.html, 8/17/2016.

² – “France’s Prime Minister [Manuel Valls] has backed the banning of burkini swimsuits, saying they are not compatible with French values and are based on the ‘enslavement of women’.” He also said he was not in favor of a national law on this subject of burkinis. Ibid.