August 24, 2009
Burqinis: Now Muslims Know How Michael Phelps Feels
At the recent World
Swimming Championships, officials announced
that competitors would soon be banned from
using the new record-smashing, limit-testing
buoyant high-tech polyurethane bodysuits.
I’m sure Michael Phelps and his friends are
bummed out. As a former record-setting
competitive swimmer who used to shop for
tight racing suits in the “infant” apparel
section to score an advantage, I can attest
to the desire to push the limit with one’s
aquatic apparel.
So can Muslims,
apparently.
Bans on their
traditional burqas are sweeping Europe, so
now they’re making them into “burqinis” and
arguing that since they have an aquatic
spin, the attire should be exempt from the
rules.
Italy banned the
Islamic headscarf in July 2005 as part of
its anti-terrorism package. The penalty for
breach was set at two years in jail and a
$3,200 fine. This week, the northern Italian
town of Varallo Sesia banned the burqini
from public pools, complete with a $700 fine
for violation.
In 2004, France banned
the headscarf in state schools, and the
country is currently debating a widespread
burqa ban in parliamentary committee. The
French have seen the burqa take to the water
in self-defense, as well. A French convert
to Islam was booted from a French swimming
pool earlier this month for wearing the
jogging suit and veil outfit.
While working as a
lifeguard to pay for university, I
encountered my fair share of people who
believed the pool was a “rules and
judgment-free zone” in much the same way
that thugs in a boxing ring figure it’s
impossible to be charged with anything short
of murder. There was an Indian man who had
to be thrown out of the pool for doing
cannonballs off the high board in a giant
white diaper contraption with a kirpan (a
religious sword worn by baptized Sikhs)
shoved through its hip.
It isn’t always a
religious issue: A man with a giant tattoo
of his naked wife across his back was
offered a complimentary t-shirt to wear in
the pool, in response to complaints from
horrified mothers. He flipped out and
refused to cover up, so he was thrown out.
And there were always
signs posted around the pool stating that no
street clothes were allowed in the pool, or
street shoes on the pool deck, for hygienic
reasons. But apparently some Muslims figure
the average “street burqa” can be made into
the exception. I thought at first that
perhaps the word “burqini” was invented by
Anglo media to describe what Muslims would
just call a sweatsuit – but nope, Ahiida
Burqini Swimwear is the actual registered
and trademarked name.
So here’s a thought: If
you don’t want people calling your swimsuit
a burqa, then don’t explicitly call it that.
You can’t have it both ways. It’s either a
burqa, or a sweatsuit worn in the water –
both of which would be unacceptable for
anyone to wear in a swimming pool anyway.
Maybe try wearing it in a yoga class.
They’re the hippies of the exercise
community, so you should start with testing
your luck there.
Here are some good
rules of thumb for lifeguards and other
public officials who may end up scratching
their heads over this issue: If it’s not in
a Speedo catalogue, then it’s not a
swimsuit. If it doesn’t show any cleavage,
then it’s not a “bikini” or any variation
thereof. If it doesn’t resemble anything in
the Koran, and if it would be intolerable by
Islamists outside of the pool, then it’s not
a burqa either.
This isn’t about
fashion choices. If it were, I wouldn’t have
any moral authority on the matter, given
that I spent most of my childhood in
sweatsuits with my name stenciled down the
side and across the back because my parents
apparently felt that I might be in danger of
losing their $40 investment. The burqa isn’t
about bad fashion exclusively – it’s about
what it conveys. Clothes, attire and
accessories carry meaning. When I was in
grade five, one girl came up to me in my
sweatsuit and said, “You would be really
popular if you wore tight jeans, you know.”
I responded, “I don’t
want to be popular.”
Similarly, when someone
is at the gym or on the subway with an iPod
plugged into their ears, they’re saying, “Go
away and leave me alone.” If mere earphones
can convey that message, then what does a
head-to-toe sheet with a tiny slit over the
eyes communicate?
I have heard
psychologists muse that people who are fat
subconsciously choose to be that way to keep
other people away. If we’re willing to
accept that a layer of blubber on someone
conveys isolation, then it ought to be easy
to accept that a head-to-toe curtain
shutting a woman off from the rest of the
world is surely communicating the same.
Perhaps the most
logical argument I have heard from those
opposed to the burqa ban is that if women in
the subservient Islamic culture are no
longer allowed to wear the burqa in public,
then their husbands will just keep them at
home. Great – a fuzzy cultural debate then
becomes a very clear case of forcible
confinement and criminality. And that
is something we can actively prosecute
without any sort of self-inflicted cultural
guilt.
Of course there are
always places where the choices – of both
dress and conduct toward women – would be
viewed as preferable by those who are burqa-bent.
No one is stopping them from going there and
bodysurfing in all the comfort of their
300-thread-count outfit.