Eric Piolle, mayor of the beautiful city of Grenoble, intends to make the authorization of the burkini in municipal swimming pools the advanced point of the progressive fight. He explained it recently in the newspaper 20 minutes, confirming, in passing, his intention to change the rules of Grenoble swimming pools during the next city council, at the beginning of June: “It’s just a question of equal access to public service, he argued. Really, this change should rather be seen as social progress.” Reading these words of “social progress”, I thought of the decades of struggle for equality between women and men, which we inherit, and which oblige us vis-à-vis the new generations. And the red of anger rose to my cheeks.
Let us be clear: there are many things to be said about this debate concerning the burkini – often as eruptive as approximate. In particular, it is necessary to look rigorously at the question of law. From this point of view, the authorization or not of this covering bathing suit (from head to toe) is not, in law, a matter of secularism: religious neutrality only applies to public officials in office and to pupils of the schools of the Republic, it does not regulate clothing in the street, any more than it imposes itself on the beaches, nor in the regulations of swimming pools – the latter generally prohibit the burkini in the name of hygiene , in the same way, for example, as wide swim shorts for boys. The question of law is therefore more complex than is often said, and approximations – voluntary or not – do not facilitate the serenity of the debate. On the other hand, from the point of view of ideas and emancipatory struggles, I believe things are simpler: associating the defense or promotion of the burkini with “social progress” is either an error or betrayal.
We can clearly see the biased reasoning that leads to the wrong path: “These women live according to a norm that prohibits them from going to the swimming pool without covering themselves completely. The burkini allows them to bathe. So the burkini is a social progress .” Let’s push the comparison. In Afghanistan, women cannot go out on the streets without a burka. The burka allows them to go out into the street. So the burka is social progress. Can we see better what is wrong with this? In his great confusion, Eric Piolle finds nothing wrong with the macho and patriarchal spring at the root of the “burkini” prescription, which consists of asking women to cover the slightest patch of skin, on the grounds that their body would be provocative and impure nature. He treats this option as a cultural folklore, an innocuous clothing choice, which should be allowed and defended in the name of “progress”, that is to say emancipation… This philosophical sleight of hand sells decades of struggle for equality between men and women, which has always been waged against religious orthopraxis.
The curious amalgams of the “progressive” camp
Do we measure, moreover, the rupture of fraternity contained in this feminist “accommodation”, in the name of respect for differences? In terms of emancipation, wouldn’t Muslim women have the right to the same standards as the others? At the foundation of the very idea of justice is the refusal of “double standards”: the feminist fight must be valid for all women. One thing is to recognize that, in a society of freedoms, the guarantee of individual rights allows everyone, if they wish, to live according to patriarchal religious prescriptions. Another is to consider the extension of these prescriptions and their acceptance as “social progress”. But in the name of a misguided anti-racism, the so-called intersectional feminists (that is to say, who intend to join the fights of women and “racialized”) are capable of all accommodations with patriarchy, as long as it comes of Islam.
Height of betrayal: they and they assign all Muslim women to the burkini. You just have to read it to be convinced. the recent forum in support of Eric Piolle’s initiative*signed by 113 personalities – among which Caroline de Haas or Alice Coffin: “It is good to remember that the swimming pool is a public service supposed to be accessible to all, they write. However, Muslim women are excluded from it by the will of the town halls not to change the internal rules of the swimming pools.” Oh yes ? “Muslim women are excluded”? Because “Muslim women” all bathe in burkinis? First news ! Edifying generalization. In the battle for norms that runs through Islam, between supporters of an orthodox and literal application on the one hand and supporters of a secular Islam on the other, the neo-feminists have chosen their camp: according to them, the “true” Muslim women necessarily wear the burkini. It’s good. This is also how the Salafists and Eric Zemmour think. That’s a lot of people in the progressive camp.
* “In May, wear what you like!”, column published, in particular by The Dauphine, May 12, 2022.