Fifteen activists feminists and Muslims have caused the closure of a swimming pool in Paris Sunday, September 1, after bathing in two-piece jersey and burkini to protest against the ban on this swimsuit covering controversial.
The small group entered a swimming pool in the 11th district and five Muslim women bathed in burkini, supported by other feminist activists in one or two-piece suits, but also transgender people and men members of the collective created for the opportunity, noted an AFP journalist.
HELLO. I go out of the swimming pool of the court of the lions, paris 11eme.
We bathed for civil disobedience to fight the segregationist regulations that forbid access to pools for Muslim women.
"We will bathe, we will bathe! Even if the racists do not want, we will bathe!": Their militant songs were greeted with looks sometimes amused, sometimes indignant at other swimmers. The punching operation provoked the intervention of the swimmers, then that of the police, without any trouble. During a brief altercation, a man irritated by the initiative showed his sex to the militants.
After about thirty minutes, the management closed the pool and the activists left with a banner with the slogan, "swimming for all, stop Islamophobia". "The goal is to access the pool as Muslim women who wear the veil," said AFP Nargesse (without giving his last name), 27, before bathing in burkini. "We want to claim our choice to wear it and to continue to have our leisure without being bothered by discriminating regulations," added the young woman, denouncing "the rise of Islamophobic ideas."
"Our bodies belong to us"
In a statement, the group called for "the change of the regulations of the swimming pools, and the accessibility to the leisures for all". "Our bodies belong to us, we cover them or discover them for reasons that concern us", argued the activists.
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A similar action in Grenoble mid-June had sparked a national controversy. Prime Minister Philippe felt that the rules of public swimming pools must be respected, and that "no religious belief" could be taken into account to derogate from them. Government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye condemned "community-based associations" trying to "impose" a debate on burkini "which has no place".