Seriously, What Orthodox Women Wear to the Beach Is No Different From a Burkini

Image by Getty
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.

Image by FETHI BELAID/AFP
Orthodox Jewish woman at the beach.

Image by Flickr
Muslim woman.

Image by Reuters/Tim Wimborne
Jewish woman.

Burkini

Image by Amazon
Modest Swimsuit for Orthodox Woman.

Image by AQUA MODESTA
Enough said.
Thea Glassman is the Forward’s multimedia fellow. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @theakglassman
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
