France's ban on the burkini might not last much longer.
France just learned that telling women what they can or cannot wear never ends well.
When Aheda Zanetti designed the burkini more than a decade ago, she did it for one very simple reason.
"I created them to stop Muslim children from missing out on swimming lessons and sports activities," the Australian-based designer told Politico. "There was nothing out there to suit their needs."
For the uninitiated, a burkini — a portmanteau of "burqa" and "bikini" — is essentially a full-coverage wetsuit that some Muslim women choose to wear for personal or religious reasons.
Australian-Lebanese designer Aheda Zanetti. Photo by Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images.
The burkini was a huge success, as Zanetti explains, because "[it] did wonders for Muslim women and girls. It created confidence to get active."
The swimsuit design has been in the news as it has come under attack in France.
Telling women what they can or cannot wear never ends well — and yet, that's what some parts of France are trying to do.
In mid-August, a number of cities in France began implementing bans on burkini swimsuits on local beaches.
Fitness instructor Fatma Taha models a burkini swimsuit. Photo by Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images.
Those who proposed the ban on burkinis claim the garment is a threat to others. But they're not. They're literally just pieces of swimwear.
In Cannes, the ban says that "access to beaches and for swimming is banned to anyone who does not have (swim wear) which respects good customs and secularism."
Cannes mayor David Lisnard, who introduced the local ban, said he did so to prohibit "beachwear ostentatiously showing a religious affiliation while France and places of religious significance are the target of terror attacks" as a means to avoid "trouble to public order."
Others have championed the bans as a move meant to empower women, claiming that the burkinis are a symbol of oppression. They're both wrong.
A woman wearing a burkini in Mahdia, Tunisia. Photo by Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images.
In the last week of August, a series of photos from a beach in Nice went viral, highlighting exactly what's wrong with the ban.
The photos show four police in Nice approaching an unnamed woman wearing a burkini on the beach. The officers hovered over her, forced her to publicly disrobe, and then fined her for violating the ban.
When you contrast that image with some of the reasons being trotted out in defense of the ban (like this one from French ambassador to the U.S. Gérard Araud), it's really hard to see the logic behind the ban.
Araud suggests that by banning the burkini, it's somehow liberating women from "a patriarchal, regressive and misogynistic clothing code." But if the ban is about respecting women, it's not quite clear how forcing a woman to publicly strip under penalty of law is empowering.
It also doesn't account for the fact that many women simply choose to wear the burkini the way other women might choose to wear a bikini or a one-piece suit based on what makes them feel comfortable.
Sometimes it seems like no matter what women do, no matter how they dress, there's just no way to win.
In recent days, the hashtag #WearWhatYouWant has gotten a lot of traction on Twitter to promote the idea that women should be allowed to make their own decisions about how they dress. In so many cases — whether it's dressing too modestly or too provocatively — women are derided for making these choices.
One French artist summed up the whole conundrum perfectly:
The good news is that the attempt to ban the burkini has failed — for now.
On Aug. 26, a French court suspended the ban in Villeneuve-Loubet (near Nice), ruling that these types of bans may only be implemented if there was a "proven risk" to the public. No such risk has been established.
While this doesn't affect the other 14 bans in effect around the country, this precedent will likely result in those being overturned as well in the near future.
A woman protests outside the French Embassy in London on Aug. 25, 2016, during a #WearWhatYouWant beach party. Photo by Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images.
Amnesty International lauded the court's decision, issuing a statement saying, "By overturning a discriminatory ban that is fueled by and is fueling prejudice and intolerance, today’s decision has drawn an important line in the sand."
Zanetti has hope for the future — not only about the burkini, but the way society treats women.
"It doesn’t matter why they make these choices," Zanetti added in her Politico interview. "The beach is there for everyone to enjoy. We are women. We should be able to wear whatever we want to and do whatever we want to do, whenever we want to do it."
Three types of bathing suits. None more or less appropriate than the others. Photo by Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images.
Long live the burkini.
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An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
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Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.