I find all this european Burkini discussion (mostly fueled by dangerous right wing extremists, like former french president Sarkozy) absolutely disgusting. It’s a very dangerous position, stupid, short sighted and wrong. To put it simply: everyone should have the right to dress as they please. Sure, some outfits should be prohibited in public, like Nazi uniforms or KKK hoods, but that’s it. Everyone should be as happy as the nuns in the photo, regardless of my opinion about their fashion choices. Do I like nuns? Oh no, I went to a Catholic school, so I know about those sisters. But, as much as I dislike them, I never considered to deprive them of the right to don headwear that defies the laws of geometry, or to swim in full nun suit – a sight to behold.
The argument I keep hearing, even from otherwise right minded folks, is that these women would be forced to wear hijabs, niqabs or burkinis by their ugly islamic family. We already have laws against that: in many European countries there are also agencies to help young people escape coercive families, regardless of nationality or religion (and by the way, the same assholes that promote the ban, at home are often homophobic, violent and abusive parents). So it really boils down to the fact that some dumb racist europeans want to ban “islamic swimwear” from their beaches, just like the Saudis ban bikinis in Arabia. It’s a clash between two identical flavors of stupidity. A flavor that you can unfortunately now smell in many european cities.