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Down Under
On Aussie beaches, burqa plus bikini equals burqini
2007-01-09
CRONULLA, AUSTRALIA – It's a sweltering day, and the beach is packed with suntanned bodies. Girls in swimsuits lounge on the sand while their boyfriends cradle surfboards. Mecca Laalaa is the lone exception. Instead of a barely there bikini, she's in a burqini - a top-to-toe two-piece lycra suit complete with hijab, or Islamic head covering.

Loose enough to preserve Muslim modesty, but light enough to enable swimming, the burqini, taking its name from the burqa, is at the forefront of a dramatic shift within Australia's iconic surf lifesaving clubs.

No longer wanting to be associated only with bronzed, blue-eyed action men, Surf Life Saving Australia is attempting to better reflect the country's multicultural mix.

Ms. Laalaa is one of 24 young people of Arab descent who signed up for a 10-week surf lifesaving-training course. "Normally, I'd wear cotton trousers and a top but they get very heavy in the water. This meets our cultural requirements," she says, preparing to go out on a beach patrol. The burqini that she wears was specially designed to allow Muslim women like her to join one of the surf lifesavers clubs.
Posted by:Steve White

#16  #15 - There are moslem life guards?

For what? Insh'allah.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2007-01-09 22:44  

#15  Will Muslim life guards rescue people with alchohol? Will they help a blind person with a guide dog?
Posted by: Elmert Crosh5077   2007-01-09 22:40  

#14  Chesty, if you ever seen the nude beaches in Northern California, you would want to enforce the burqinis.
Posted by: Penguin   2007-01-09 15:10  

#13  After some improvements they'll wind up selling a million of them.

I'll stick to "budgie smugglers".
Posted by: Chesty Bond   2007-01-09 14:28  

#12  Don't kid yourself. After some improvements they'll wind up selling a million of them.
Posted by: Penguin   2007-01-09 14:26  

#11  xbalanke nails it. Will that mean the save Muslims only? Or, how will they react to a drowning member of the opposite sex? What if I start choking on some BBQ pork ribs on the beach?

Inquiring minds and all....
Posted by: BA   2007-01-09 13:54  

#10  One word comes to mind, BARF!
Posted by: Spomort Greling4204   2007-01-09 13:00  

#9  If these kids are lifeguarding so as to do that, good.

I'm waiting for the first time a devout Muslim saves a member of the opposite sex (or vice versa) and needs to do mouth-to-mouth. I bet we'll see the limits of this assimilation then.
Posted by: xbalanke   2007-01-09 12:14  

#8  No longer wanting to be associated only with bronzed, blue-eyed action men, Surf Life Saving Australia is attempting to better reflect the country's multicultural mix seventh-century.

Fixed.
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-01-09 11:16  

#7  (Points and laughs)
Posted by: mojo   2007-01-09 10:07  

#6  "It's about counteracting the negative stereotyping of Muslims, which has been very bad over the last five years. Our greatest enemy is ignorance."

No, I think your greatest enemy is your midevil religion of death and fire. This is typical muslim bullshit. The problem in Cronulla was a bunch of arab freaks drooling on the girls and raping them on their way home at night, not us white folks.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2007-01-09 09:18  

#5  Well now.

I think this is a good thing. The burqini part is laughable -- try wearing that in the 95 degree sun (35˚C for you metric fans) and I'll just bet that in a couple days that sleek aussie lifeguard outfit will start looking pretty good.

But what you have here are a group of Muslim immigrants who are, best as I can tell, trying to integrate into something that's a tradition in the country. Now if they're doing that with the best of intentions (yeah, yeah, I know, I know) that's great, and Australia needs more of it. Immigrants have to assimilate. That's their #1 job. If these kids are lifeguarding so as to do that, good.

And if not, we'll figure it out.
Posted by: Steve White   2007-01-09 08:58  

#4  "One, two, three four, tell the Ummah
what she wore in Cronulla today.
It was a baggy, saggy, soggy, clingy
yellow crescent moon burquini
keeping the Bondi cigars away."

Posted by: Whiskettes4Hilali   2007-01-09 07:48  

#3  Note that this is supposed to be a VOLUNTEER organization, but that they get money to RECRUIT Muslims. Not necessarily support operations, but to RECRUIT Muslims.

At the same time, you'd have thunk that a MUSLIM country would have thought about using this sort of material for this sort of application LONG BEFORE the Aussies had to address this issue. The demand that one wear the Burqa even while swimming has been around for years, and it is common knowledge that Arab men wear as little at the beach as the Euro men do, while women trying to enjoy one of God's gifts of nature have to risk their lives swimming while in a bag.

The fact that NO THOUGHT was ever given to this issue by Arab Muslims is reflective of the core contradictory attitude toward women: valuable enough to suppress and cover up, but not valuable enough to provide SAFE beach wear.

Rack up ANOTHER example of the West coming to the rescue of women caught in Muslim insanity.
Posted by: Ptah   2007-01-09 07:32  

#2  Those one piecers may become desireable during jellyfish season down south -- I'm told even so much as nylon stockings over bare skin can prevent being stung.
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-01-09 07:22  

#1  Just when you think you've heard and seen it all. This is so incredibly laughable, it's beyond words. Besides, there's no need for muzzie lifeguards. If a muzzies gets in trouble, the regulars will handle it fine.

"Look Jack, you see that one waving out there ?"
"Nope, I don't see nothin'. Check that string bikini over there to the left."
Posted by: SpecOp35   2007-01-09 01:46  

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