Non-Muslims flock to buy burkinis as French bans raise profile of the modest swimwear style
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The burkini is seen as a symbol of integration, says its designer. Here lifesaver Mecca Laa Laa wears a burkini on her first patrol at North Cronulla Beach [New South Wales, Australia] in 2007.
Photo: Getty Images
Over the past eight years, Aheda Zanetti has sold 700,000 swimsuits to clients all over the world. Her designs, costing from $80 to $200, are sought out from Norway to Israel and are each made in Villawood, western Sydney.
Zanetti is the Australian inventor of the #burkini and the swimsuits she sells under the label Ahiida are full body, hooded and inspired by Islamic modesty.
But what is particularly interesting about Ahiida, which now finds itself in the crosshairs of controversial French rules banning the garment on the basis of secularism laws, is that 45 per cent of its clients, Zanetti estimates, are non-Muslims.
“This is about choice,” says Zanetti, who hails from Lebanon and moved to Bankstown when she was two. “The burkini stands for freedom, flexibility and confidence, it does not stand for misery, torture and terror.”