The burkini is an option, not oppression, say those opposed to ban

Recent attempts in France toban theburkinihave prompted protests andcourt challenges.

Some of those who've defended thebody-concealing swimsuitsay that while theywouldn't wear one themselvesand don't necessarilyagree with the religious associations it carries, they will defend women's right to wear what theywant.

On Friday,the top court in Franceoverturned one town's ban on the burkini, a ruling that is likely to set a precedent across the country.

The decision comes after several Muslim women were ordered to removethe body-coveringswimwearon French beaches. Someburkiniwearers were also issued fines.

Sonu Kilam is the co-founder and designer at East Essence, an online store that sells modern and traditional Islamic clothes. East Essence started to sell burkinis about six years ago, she said, after receiving requests from customers specifically, Mormon customers who were looking for modest activewear.

"[We]came across theburkini and thought, 'Perfect, it will work for all our customers,'" Kilam told CBC News from Newark, Calif.

The company's various burkini options represent about 15 per cent of its sales, she said, andit's not only Muslim women ordering them.

Non-Muslims also in the market for modest swimwear

Kilam recently got an email from a Canadian woman who wrote,"It's hard for women like me who are 40 or older and don't feel comfortable showing skin to find swimwear in Canada."

Other burkini customers include women with skin conditions, Kilam said, and the companyrecently made a custom burkini for a plus-sizewoman whowanted something to wear for water aerobics.

There have been reports that burkini sales have increased since the controversy started, but Kilam said she hasn't noticed any significant changes.

Kilamdoesn't wearaburkini herself and says shedoesn't necessarily agree with some of the ideasbehind the originof Muslim body coverings for women. Still, she says, clothing has nothing to do with radicalization.

"I really hope it (the burkini controversy)calms down eventually, or it's going to promote more tensions otherwise," she said.

Feiza Ben Mohamed is the leader of a Muslim organization in Nice, one of the French cities that banned the burkini, and has been working to get the bans overturned.

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She wears a bikini to the beach, but many of her friends wear burkinis orlong dresses,shetold CBC Radio's As It Happens.

Although France's prime minister, Manuel Valls,said the burkiniis based on the idea of "the enslavement of women," Ben Mohamedsees the swimsuitnot as a sign of oppressionbut of freedom the freedomto wear what you want.

"They do it by themselves because they want to go out," Ben Mohamed said. "When someone is radicalized, they don't go to the beach."

Algerian businessman Rachid Nekkaz doesn't agree with the burkini or niqab, the full Muslim face covering,but he's paid $355,000 in fines on behalf of women in France who were fined for wearing a niqab in public. He's now offering to pay for women fined for wearing a burkini.

He told As It Happens that he doesn't agree with either piece of clothingbut not because they oppresswomen.

The face and body coverings arenot the best way to integrate into French society, he says,but womenstill should have the right to wear them.

"Do you know the women who are wearing a niqab or burkini are totally free? We are not in Afghanistan. Most of them have French parents," he said.

'It's not symbolising Islam'

Aheda Zanetti, who created the burkini, says banning the swimsuits because they oppress women shows a lack of understanding about why she made them in the first place:to give women options.

"Our sales have increased, and the more they actually ban it, or the more they actually reject it, it doesn't mean a woman will ever stop wearing it," she told the Reuters news agency. "We've introduced this new lifestyle for women that never had it."

Zanetti created the burkini after watching her niece playing sports in the Australia heat and realizingshe didn't have functional clothing that would allow her tobe active while still dressing modestly, she wrote in the Guardian.

"It was about integration and acceptance and being equal and about not being judged," she wrote.

"It's just a garment to suit a modest person, or someone who has skin cancer, or a new mother who doesn't want to wear a bikini. It's not symbolising Islam."