Frankly, swimming while clothed takes away all the joy of the freedom to move in the water, but after that, it’s up to each individual. How does it impede my freedom? How does it call into question living together or secularism?
Invoking public order disturbances stems from profound intellectual dishonesty. The same argument was used — sometimes by the same people — to ban toplessness on beaches 40 years ago…
As for the near-systematic parallel with terrorism, it stems from a persistent logic of stigmatization that is dangerous for our society.
Today, this controversy only serves to comfort the sectarians on different sides who will see, once again, an opportunity to radicalize against one another. Meanwhile, other issues are not being addressed…
This Burkini affair, however, raises a real question that is too often overlooked, that of women’s emancipation. In this matter, the case of Lionnel Luca, a worthy representative of the far-right, is quite significant. The one who relentlessly opposed the 2000 reform of abortion rights has just signed for his municipality of Villeneuve Loubet an ordinance banning the burkini, invoking, among other things, women’s rights…
A variable-geometry argument that highlights that in this period of crisis, the questioning of women’s rights and the degradation of their image is a common characteristic of all reactionaries beyond religious beliefs. From Erdogan, to Trump, not forgetting Le Pen and all religious radicals, the questioning of women’s rights is a constant. The best way to fight this battle is to carry it openly, rather than instrumentalizing it in a different kind of fight, which is the one of identity withdrawal and fascist tendencies.
Robert Injey
