Amsterdam: Burkini swimmers want men to leave pool

Amsterdam: Burkini swimmers want men to leave pool

A group of Muslim women in Amsterdam is demanding that men be banned from the Zuiderbad pool while they're swimming there.  The pool's employees disagree with that.

A burkini almost completely covers the body, but the Muslim women feel uncomfortable if the men in the pool see their feet and hands.  Egbert de Vries, mayor of the Oud-Zuid district, says it's nonsense to bar all men from the pool for this reason.  But he says that he can see having women's hour for one or two hours a week.  For example, there's naked swimming an hour a week, and that is open only for men.

There is already a weekly women's swimming class in the Zuiderbad pool and a special mixed hour for women 18+ and men 55+.

Parliament member Paul de Krom (VVD) says it's 'quite bizarre'.  "This is a world turned upside down," according to Krom, "if they want to swim in a burkini, and then also demand that all men leave, they should do that in Casablanca."

Source: Telegraaf (Dutch)

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