Far better a burkini than some outfits I saw on girls this week
ONE of the most striking images this week was of a woman being forced by police to remove some of her modest clothing on a French beach before being fined for wearing a ‘burkini’.
It was a provocative picture that inflamed the intensely divisive debate about Muslim women wearing swimwear that covers their entire bodies.
It’s been dubbed the Burkini Battle and has come to represent the growing tensions between Muslims and indigenous populations in Western Europe. A series of Islamist attacks on civilian targets, notably in Nice — which is also where that woman was accosted by the police — have served to heighten the climate of mistrust.
A second picture that brought another dimension to the debate was of women clad in full-length burqas paddling in the sea at Brighton.
Of course there is no suggestion of a ban on burkinis on British beaches like the one in France (which was suspended yesterday). Yet I don’t doubt there is still a deep discomfort among many Britons who see burkinis and burqas as symbols of female subjugation.
At the heart of this controversy is a profound clash of cultures between those who see strict female Islamic dress codes as modest and those who view them as a form of male tyranny.
Perhaps before we leap to judgment we should consider our own cultural mores, paraded for all to see in the hot weather this week.
As the temperature soared, in every High Street you could see young girls in crop tops, paired with cut-off shorts so brief they barely covered their bottoms. How their parents even let them out the front door is beyond me.
To many, the sight of these provocatively dressed coquettes is as disquieting as women in 30c heat standing on a Sussex beach in burqas.
It is certainly easy to understand why other religions and cultures feel only disdain that we have allowed young girls to become so sexualised.
SuRELY there is a middle way between two extremes, and perhaps there are lessons to be learned from our Muslim sisters about common decency and self-respect. One prime example of how to balance the liberal and the deeply conservative is Nadiya Hussain, last year’s Great British Bake Off winner. In her new series, The Chronicles Of Nadiya, we saw a lovely, clever, confident young mother who has captured the nation’s heart while wearing a headscarf.
I am not suggesting we all start covering our hair, but she has much to teach us about grace, modesty and beauty — which should surely be ingredients in the make- up of a modern young woman.