The Veiled Swimsuit

With Islam in the spotlight ever since the events of 9/11, there have been regular news stories of how Islamic values, as they are practiced by people around the world, come into conflict with the societal norms in those areas. The veil has featured as a confusing and sensitive feature of some of these stories. One of these was when a Muslim woman was banned from a Paris pool for wearing a “burquini", it was deemed too unhygienic by the authorities. For some reason, i feel the ruling has more to do with people objecting to someone being so different from the norm (specifically in the islamic sense) rather than any issue of hygiene but thats just my opinion and may well be way off what the facts on the ground really are.

Nevertheless, what is most surprising to me is how the 'liberation' movement and modernization of society as we know it has changed ideas of what is admissable and what is not. A recent article i read online really has been an eye opener and is what inspired this post. http://www.elle.com/Living/Society-Culture/Swimsuit-Scandals What shocked me the most was that at the start of the 20th century, a suit which covered a little less than the suit above was deemed not modest enough for societal standards. That too, for someone who swam professionally, the pic is of Annette Kellerman, an australian who became the first woman to cross the English Channel. The change from that point in time in 1907 to now in 2009 has been drastic and extremely fast and how it will impact the mindset of generations to come seems makes me quite uneasy. What our next generation may deem to be normal and decent may well be very difficult for us to digest, but i suppose thats how its been for past generations as well. Is this a just a cycle, a degenerative one according to me, that humankind goes through every few centuries or has the current modern man transgressed beyond past historical trends. Time will tell.