Burkini Britain: After the French ban, this startling image from Brighton beach split UK opinion. But is it a symbol of repression or a sign of Muslim women’s growing freedom, asks SARAH RAINEY

A woman was made to strip off a loose blue top to reveal a vest in Nice
The controversial photograph shocked many people after they saw it
Now a photo of women in Islamic clothes on a UK beach has split opinion

By Sarah Rainey For The Daily Mail, 29 August 2016

But times are changing. On English beaches today, mixed in among the usual skimpy bikinis, you’re also increasingly likely to see burkinis.

So named because they resemble the burka, these are full-body swimming costumes with a hood, favoured by some Muslim women — a form of Islamic dress that covers the entire body.

When we visit Brighton’s seafront, in stark contrast to the hundreds of other females flashing their flesh around them, a group of Muslim women attract attention. A young woman wearing a navy blue burkini paddles in the surf with a group of female relatives, all dressed in flowing black robes and headscarves.



Women wearing Islamic dress were photographed enjoying themselves on Brighton beach



Women wearing traditional Islamic dress were enjoying the day at Brighton beach last week

Further west, on Newquay’s golden sands in Cornwall, there are more burkinis. Seemingly oblivious to curious onlookers, three women, dressed head-to-toe in black, their legs, arms, bodies and hair swathed in dark fabric, splash around in the water, only their faces exposed to the hot midday sun.

These striking images can’t fail to halt you, however momentarily — a most visible sign that Britain’s society has changed more in the past 20 years than could once possibly have been imagined. It follows, then, that the rise of the burkini in Britain is, to some, a divisive issue.



A woman was made to strip off a loose blue top to reveal a vest on a crowded beach in Nice.

THOUSANDS of British women heading to holiday hotspots in Morocco could be targeted by hardline Islamists who are waging an online campaign to shame those who wear bikinis.

However, while many women in the UK add their bikini to their suitcase without a second thought, Islamists in Morocco are warning those caught wearing skimpy swimwear will have their photograph taken and the image posted online for millions around the world to see.

The hardliners are angry women from the West are showing flesh in a country where more than 99 per cent of the population is Muslim, modesty is expected and many females wear headscarves.

As a warning to those who flout the strict dress code, an anonymous group using a pseudonym has already posted dozens of pictures of women in bikinis on Facebook.