Seriously, What Orthodox Women Wear to the Beach Is No Different From a Burkini
Moshe Sebbag, the rabbi of the Grand Synagogue of Paris, announced this week that he supports the French ban on burkinis, the modest swimwear some Muslim women wear to cover up on the beach.
Wearing a burkini, he said, is not “innocent” and it sends a message.
But, we ask Sebbag, what difference exactly is there between the garb Orthodox Jewish women wear to the beach than the burkinis that some Muslim women wear?
And why should one religious group of women be allowed to follow their traditions over another?
Muslim woman at the beach.
Orthodox Jewish woman at the beach.
Muslim woman.
Jewish woman.
Burkini
Modest Swimsuit for Orthodox Woman.
Enough said.
Thea Glassman is the Forward’s multimedia fellow. Contact her at glassman@forward.com or on Twitter, @theakglassman
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO