Private beach area for Muslim Women Planned in Italy

[Bosco 1]

what's "dressing Arab" There is Islamic Dress but what's dressing arab. I don't think you are going to have that people working that hard to spy. There are plenty of practily naked women running around. Italy isn't the first country to have blocked off women only beaches. By the way the beaches is lebanon are on the ocean. Just the view is blocked off. Actually men who don't go to mixed beaches are the ones that are restricted. They don't have men only beaches.

It is fine to wear ethnic clothing. I wear djellabas and caftans on occasion. My point is only that becoming Muslim doesn't mean you *have to* wear Moroccan style modest clothing if you are with a Moroccan, or Gulf style modest clothing if you are with a man from a Gulf country, or likewise modest Pakistani clothing if you are with a Pakistani man. There are many ways to dress islamically that don't entail adopting a culture - and again not that there is anything wrong with wearing clothing from another culture - only that some people don't seem to realize the two don't necessarily go hand-in-hand. doesn't fit all. For example, there is a man at my daughter's school who is 100% American. He converted a long time ago. He dresses like a South Asian 100% of the time. He tells people "this is how Muslims dress" with authority.

I don't think a women's only beach is restrictive - but I do think when women are told (or led to believe) they cannot run, engage in sports, etc. or go even to a women's only beach because of the slight chance of being see, then they are being restricted or choosing restrictions.

[Together4ever 1]

I realize this now has the potential to start another "thing" but Mohammed and I have talked about this a lot. I do have a few "Egyptian-style Islamic garments". However I am not Egyptian and I am not Arab. When I was in Egypt, I blended in, and it was a choice I made and a show of my respect to his family and for their culture. Mohammed actually discouraged this, stating I should be me, and I told him I was being me. To show respect to the people whose home and country I was in meant something to me. Now I'm back in the USA. I still dress modestly but American-style. I don't feel I'm breaking any "codes of conduct". That's between me and Allah anyway.

Maybe the restricted beach they are touting in Italy isn't an "Ideal" but in a world where Muslims are being looked at with narrow eyes I think it's commendable that some type of effort (whether it's a good one or a lame attempt) is a plus.

On the topic of male only beaches, this is something Mohammed always wished for. A place for him to be free with his friends without the worry of offending a modest female by accidently looking her way. He is most definitely not comfortable with the girls swimming in swim suits. He almost never went simply because it was always uncomfortable for him. Maybe it would be nice if they offered BOTH.

Just 2 more cents... (cuz I"m procrastinating going to Walmart... yuck).

[Sofiyya 1,687]

I'm Arab, so dressing in "Arab" dress is kind of a whatever for me. Palestinians are state-less wanderers, so I can claim a lot of traditional styles, and that makes it fun. Altho I'm semi-Moroccan, Moroccan dress has never struck me as something with which I can make a great fashion statement. I do love the shalmar kameez and ethnic Palestinian clothing, as well as many Asian styles. But Rebecca is right; Islamic clothing is not limited to ethnic styles.

I got over the guilt trip about who might see me long ago, that's why this article struck a cord. It's just the IDEA, not the reality, of a secluded, Muslim women's only sandbox/maybe beach that sparked an article, and that made no sense to me.

[lostinlove228 0]

I am Muslim Born and Arab born. I wear what you would call "western clothing" even when I was in Lebanon. You some women who choose to wear the Islamic Garb which is the Long dress. It doesn't have to be a certain type of closing for muslims. As long the the cloths are loose and cover your whole body, it really doesn't matter.

[lostinlove228 0]

I am Muslim Born and Arab born. I wear what you would call "western clothing" even when I was in Lebanon. You some women who choose to wear the Islamic Garb which is the Long dress. It doesn't have to be a certain type of closing for muslims. As long the the cloths are loose and cover your whole body, it really doesn't matter.

[iceyspots 0]

lol.. I just swim covered up.. it takes a little getting used to but it does the trick.

[daphne2109 0]

Beach for Muslim Women Planned in Italy

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer

5 hours ago

ROME - Hotels at an Italian seaside resort are eager to act on the town's decision to authorize the creation of all-female beach sections for Muslim women, with at least one hotel owner saying Friday that plans are already under way to open the first of such secluded areas next month.

The city council of Riccione, a popular resort on Italy's Adriatic coast about 90 miles east of Florence, has said it is prepared to authorize requests to set up partitions on parts of the shoreline to satisfy requests from the town's growing numbers of Arab and Muslim tourists.

"They can have anything they want, but they can't go to the beach, at least not without all those heavy clothes," Attilio Cenni, owner of the upscale Grand Hotel des Bains, said of his female Muslim guests.

Cenni said he plans to open the first secluded section starting in September on a stretch of shoreline of about 1,000 square meters (10,000 square feet) and to expand further next season across the more isolated beaches on Riccione's outskirts.

He also plans a TV advertising campaigns in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Cenni told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Popular with German and French tourists, Riccione's mass-tourism venues have recently started to attract thousands of Arab and Muslim visitors each year, mostly from the conservative Arabian peninsula, city officials say.

Supporters of the idea say that the separate beaches would allow observant Muslim women to shed their headscarves and long robes and enjoy the sun in privacy; religious restrictions otherwise oblige them to cover up if men are present.

"I can only be in favor of such a proposal," said Tomas Corazza, manager of the Hotel Mediterraneo. "It allows them to use the beach while respecting their traditions and their religion."

Corazza didn't have immediate plans to open a beach for Muslims this season but said he would advertise this new feature in a mailing list he sends to some 3,000 Arabs who are frequent guests at the hotel.

Cenni said he was already discussing with authorities the only snag in the proposal _ the fact that the partitions won't reach into the sea but will have to stop short of the waterline to allow public passage.

While Riccione's municipality would consider authorizing the construction of reserved seaside swimming pools, Cenni said he hopes he will be allowed to close-off the entire beach with covered partitions and have female lifeguards patrol the sea in water scooters to keep men away. In Italy, all shorelines must be accessible to the public.

"That sounds a little bit like a fantasy," said Andrea Cicchetti, a spokesman for Riccione's mayor.

But Cenni insists that if the partitions are mounted on isolated beaches the inconvenience to passers-by and swimmers will be minimal, allowing his guests to swim without having to don headscarves and robes again.

"These are areas where there is little passage and any problem could be solved with common sense and sensitivity," he said. "We want to make a beach where these ladies will be free."

[daphne2109 0]

Beach for Muslim Women Planned in Italy

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer

5 hours ago

ROME - Hotels at an Italian seaside resort are eager to act on the town's decision to authorize the creation of all-female beach sections for Muslim women, with at least one hotel owner saying Friday that plans are already under way to open the first of such secluded areas next month.

The city council of Riccione, a popular resort on Italy's Adriatic coast about 90 miles east of Florence, has said it is prepared to authorize requests to set up partitions on parts of the shoreline to satisfy requests from the town's growing numbers of Arab and Muslim tourists.

"They can have anything they want, but they can't go to the beach, at least not without all those heavy clothes," Attilio Cenni, owner of the upscale Grand Hotel des Bains, said of his female Muslim guests.

Cenni said he plans to open the first secluded section starting in September on a stretch of shoreline of about 1,000 square meters (10,000 square feet) and to expand further next season across the more isolated beaches on Riccione's outskirts.

He also plans a TV advertising campaigns in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Cenni told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Popular with German and French tourists, Riccione's mass-tourism venues have recently started to attract thousands of Arab and Muslim visitors each year, mostly from the conservative Arabian peninsula, city officials say.

Supporters of the idea say that the separate beaches would allow observant Muslim women to shed their headscarves and long robes and enjoy the sun in privacy; religious restrictions otherwise oblige them to cover up if men are present.

"I can only be in favor of such a proposal," said Tomas Corazza, manager of the Hotel Mediterraneo. "It allows them to use the beach while respecting their traditions and their religion."

Corazza didn't have immediate plans to open a beach for Muslims this season but said he would advertise this new feature in a mailing list he sends to some 3,000 Arabs who are frequent guests at the hotel.

Cenni said he was already discussing with authorities the only snag in the proposal _ the fact that the partitions won't reach into the sea but will have to stop short of the waterline to allow public passage.

While Riccione's municipality would consider authorizing the construction of reserved seaside swimming pools, Cenni said he hopes he will be allowed to close-off the entire beach with covered partitions and have female lifeguards patrol the sea in water scooters to keep men away. In Italy, all shorelines must be accessible to the public.

"That sounds a little bit like a fantasy," said Andrea Cicchetti, a spokesman for Riccione's mayor.

But Cenni insists that if the partitions are mounted on isolated beaches the inconvenience to passers-by and swimmers will be minimal, allowing his guests to swim without having to don headscarves and robes again.

"These are areas where there is little passage and any problem could be solved with common sense and sensitivity," he said. "We want to make a beach where these ladies will be free."

I bumped into this subject just by chance sorry, but I do not agree with this plan because the beaches are

for everybody so I dont understand the reason why they're planning a separeted area. If I go to a muslim country to they have separated area on the beaches for women who are not muslim? I dont think so, so since I'm not muslim and I know that they dont have in their countries a beach for a non muslim women then I wont go to those countries. Sorry this is my point of view, and that's the reason I dont agree with this plan, but everyody can think in a different way since we have the freedom to exchange our thoughts and say what we think. Thank God!!!!!

[Henia 11]

Beach for Muslim Women Planned in Italy

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer

5 hours ago

ROME - Hotels at an Italian seaside resort are eager to act on the town's decision to authorize the creation of all-female beach sections for Muslim women, with at least one hotel owner saying Friday that plans are already under way to open the first of such secluded areas next month.

The city council of Riccione, a popular resort on Italy's Adriatic coast about 90 miles east of Florence, has said it is prepared to authorize requests to set up partitions on parts of the shoreline to satisfy requests from the town's growing numbers of Arab and Muslim tourists.

"They can have anything they want, but they can't go to the beach, at least not without all those heavy clothes," Attilio Cenni, owner of the upscale Grand Hotel des Bains, said of his female Muslim guests.

Cenni said he plans to open the first secluded section starting in September on a stretch of shoreline of about 1,000 square meters (10,000 square feet) and to expand further next season across the more isolated beaches on Riccione's outskirts.

He also plans a TV advertising campaigns in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Cenni told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Popular with German and French tourists, Riccione's mass-tourism venues have recently started to attract thousands of Arab and Muslim visitors each year, mostly from the conservative Arabian peninsula, city officials say.

Supporters of the idea say that the separate beaches would allow observant Muslim women to shed their headscarves and long robes and enjoy the sun in privacy; religious restrictions otherwise oblige them to cover up if men are present.

"I can only be in favor of such a proposal," said Tomas Corazza, manager of the Hotel Mediterraneo. "It allows them to use the beach while respecting their traditions and their religion."

Corazza didn't have immediate plans to open a beach for Muslims this season but said he would advertise this new feature in a mailing list he sends to some 3,000 Arabs who are frequent guests at the hotel.

Cenni said he was already discussing with authorities the only snag in the proposal _ the fact that the partitions won't reach into the sea but will have to stop short of the waterline to allow public passage.

While Riccione's municipality would consider authorizing the construction of reserved seaside swimming pools, Cenni said he hopes he will be allowed to close-off the entire beach with covered partitions and have female lifeguards patrol the sea in water scooters to keep men away. In Italy, all shorelines must be accessible to the public.

"That sounds a little bit like a fantasy," said Andrea Cicchetti, a spokesman for Riccione's mayor.

But Cenni insists that if the partitions are mounted on isolated beaches the inconvenience to passers-by and swimmers will be minimal, allowing his guests to swim without having to don headscarves and robes again.

"These are areas where there is little passage and any problem could be solved with common sense and sensitivity," he said. "We want to make a beach where these ladies will be free."

I bumped into this subject just by chance sorry, but I do not agree with this plan because the beaches are

for everybody so I dont understand the reason why they're planning a separeted area. If I go to a muslim country to they have separated area on the beaches for women who are not muslim? I dont think so, so since I'm not muslim and I know that they dont have in their countries a beach for a non muslim women then I wont go to those countries. Sorry this is my point of view, and that's the reason I dont agree with this plan, but everyody can think in a different way since we have the freedom to exchange our thoughts and say what we think. Thank God!!!!!

Your comments welcome of course...but the key word was "for muslim women"..cos Muslim women dont go naked or half...esp with strange men around And somehow I doubt you would be going to a muslim country in general but if you are, well then I guess you are welcome to prance around in a bikini...

[Veiled Princess 1]

Your comments welcome of course...but the key word was "for muslim women"..cos Muslim women dont go naked or half...esp with strange men around And somehow I doubt you would be going to a muslim country in general but if you are, well then I guess you are welcome to prance around in a bikini...

[lostinlove228 0]

For Muslims means women only. The women can wear Bathing suits and go swimming. As long as you are a female, there is nothing stopping you from going to the beach. There is such a thing as Non-Muslim beach and that is the Mixed Beache. And Sorry but Most beaches are Private Property. Someone owns them and runs a business there and in the end can make the beach anyway they want within the law.

[Bosco 1]

link to article

At new resorts, Egyptian women find a place in the sun

By Sarah Gauch | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

MARINA, EGYPT

Once inside the imposing gate at La Femme beach, the women start peeling off the layers: first the head coverings, then the long-sleeve shirts and floor-length skirts - right down to their skimpy bikinis, instantly transforming from conservative Islamic veiled women into sexy beach babes.

For here at La Femme on Egypt's north coast, veiled women can don swimsuits, tan, swim, even twist and shimmy to blasting Arabic tunes - all away from men's prying eyes. And they love it.

"I feel free," says Nermine, an accountant in Cairo who hasn't hit the beach in her swimsuit since she began wearing hijab (Islamic dress) 10 years ago. She declined to give her full name. "You can do whatever you want here; you can swim, dance."

With more wealthy, younger Egyptian women wearing hijab, private women-only beaches like La Femme, about 150 miles north of Cairo on the Mediterranean, have become the place to be. It allows them to have fun, look chic, and remain pious in God's eyes.

After the first women-only beach, Yashmak, opened July 2004, two others, including La Femme, quickly followed. Yashmak's owner, Walid Moustafa, says he is already planning another.

To spot La Femme from Marina's main thoroughfare, just look for the beach's towering, 20-foot palm-reed wall that surrounds the beach complex.

Inside the gate, only women are allowed: women bouncers, vendors, DJs, janitors, managers - and many guests. No males are allowed, only boys six-years-old and under. And no cameras.

On the beach on this particular 100-degree-plus day is a sea of oiled, swimsuit- clad bodies, jammed like puzzle pieces along a tiny 400-foot-long sea front and wearing everything from the most matronly one-piece to the most revealing string bikini. They lounge on beach chairs, belly dance with abandon while a DJ pumps out the latest Arabic rock tunes, or sip iced cappuccino at the cafe.

Waitresses give their orders to male cooks by poking their head into a shoulder-wide box that hangs on the outside wall of a completely closed-off kitchen.

Not all the women at La Femme are veiled and Muslim. Some are Christian. Some aren't veiled. They are old and young, fat and thin. But they all agree they want more beaches like this one. "I'd like to see these beaches in Alexandria, Sharm el-Sheikh, Hurghada, wherever there are beaches in Egypt," says Mona Ahmed, a Cairo homemaker who is not veiled but says she far prefers La Femme to mixed-sex beaches.

For the women here, beaches where men also go are no fun. "Men go to the beaches to watch the swimsuits," says Dina El Mougy, an oil company administrator from Cairo who veils. "It's a kind of fashion show and very annoying. When I go to mixed beaches, I can only touch the water with my feet."

The other options, these women say, are to wear the dreaded full-body Islamic swimsuit. Or they can try to find a completely secluded beach, hit the beach earlier than anyone else, or swim in their clothes. Some say they just stop going to the beach at all.

They choose La Femme, but it comes at a hefty price: $13 on weekends and $8.50 on weekdays just to enter, an exorbitant amount by Egyptian standards. At such prices, La Femme is big business.

On the grounds is an all-pink beauty center, offering massages and hair styling. Shops selling jewelry, swimsuits, and sandals dot the complex.

To attract more visitors there are also free cooking demonstrations, yoga and belly-dancing classes, even beauty competitions where women compete for the title of Miss La Femme (best all-round), Miss Congeniality, and Miss Elegance.

Besides the women-only beaches, hip fashion stores cater to this new class of wealthier, hipper women in hijab. Makeup artists have created chic ideas for tying head scarves.

But places like La Femme are not without their critics. "I only see capitalism and consumerism, women wearing designer swimsuits and showing off their wealth," says respected Muslim intellectual Heba Raouf. "This is not Islam, hiding yourself from men while exposing yourself to women. This is a spectacle."

Raouf explains that hijab is meant to help Muslim women be modest and egalitarian.

Women at La Femme counter that they're simply having fun in a way that doesn't contradict Islam.

La Femme's owner, businessman Khaled Fouad, admits that the beach is a business venture; he says it was never meant to be a totally Islamic beach.

"They can open a new club and call it Islamic La Femme," he says. "Nobody will even go swimming. Everyone will just sit there."

Edited August 30, 2006 by Bosco

[lostinlove228 0]

First one was in 2004? I went for the first time to one in lebanon about 10 years ago.