Italian resort plans separate beaches for Muslim women
An Italian seaside resort plans to create all-female beach sections for Muslim women wishing to shed their headscarves and long robes to enjoy the sun in privacy, officials said today.
The city council of Riccione, a popular resort on Italy’s eastern coast, plans to authorise hotels to set up partitions on parts of shoreline to satisfy requests from the town’s growing numbers of Arab and Muslim tourists.
“Our beaches are big enough to answer this need,” said Loretta Villa, Riccione’s councilwoman for urban planning. ”We live on tourism and we can’t survive if we don’t satisfy the requests of our customers, especially the ones who have started coming here only recently.”
By making some areas off-limits to men, observant Muslim women will be able to ease-up on religious restrictions that oblige them cover up if men are present, Villa said.
The city is prepared to authorise the petitions immediately, upon request.
“If we wanted to we could create a beach section reserved for nudists, it would be the same thing,” Villa said.
The reserved beaches would be serviced only by female waitresses and lifeguards.
However, the partitions will not reach into the sea as a section of the beach must remain clear for public passage, Villa said. To allow Muslim women to swim without covering up in robes and headscarves, Riccione’s municipality would consider authorising the construction of reserved seaside swimming pools, she said.
