Woland
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 3:09 am Post subject: Burqinis, Anyone? |
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Here's a link to a NYTimes article on Muslims joining Australia's surf life saving association.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/world/asia/09australia.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Some samples:
| Quote: |
Ms. Laalaa is a Muslim and has voluntarily worn the burqa, the traditional head-to-toe covering for Muslim women, since she was 14. It is hard to swim, she said, if your body is swathed in cotton, which is very heavy when wet.
Now, her clothing quandary solved by a novel fashion, the burqini, Ms. Laalaa, a vivacious 20-yearold, has become a Surf Life Saver, as volunteer lifeguards here are known, lured to the beach by a new outreach program for Australia�s Muslims. |
| Quote: |
Under the program, 22 men and women, from 14 to 40 years old and including a woman with three small children, signed up to become Surf Life Savers. Most were ethnic Lebanese, but there was a Palestinian, a Syrian and a Libyan.
�But all proudly Australian,� said one, Suheil Damouny. �It�s important to mention that.� |
| Quote: |
But Ms. Laalaa said one reason she had joined the lifesaving program was to educate Australians about Muslims. �They don�t think Muslim women swim,� she said. �Or do anything,� she quickly added with an irrepressible laugh.
When people see women wearing the burqa, they think they are oppressed. �I am not oppressed,� she said. �I do have my own mouth. I am educated. I do make my own decisions.� |
| Quote: |
| Ms. Laalaa said her father, a welder, was completely supportive, as was her mother, a homemaker, and her three brothers and sister. She said her family was not that different from other Muslims in Australia. Most are moderate, she said. Experts here agree. It is the radicals who grab the headlines, they say. |
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