Liberals fear setback as Syria orders women to wear ‘burkinis'

Times

a day ago

Syria's government has banned bikinis from public beaches in a set of new guidelines that limit women to wearing 'burkinis' that cover the entire body.
The move revives concerns by liberals after the government, led by President Sharaa, sought to allay fears that it would impose a strict interpretation of Islam after toppling Bashar al-Assad in December. Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda commander, oversaw an Islamist government in his former bastion, Idlib, before leading his troops to the capital, Damascus.
'It will be the natural Syria,' he told The Times and other media in a December interview. 'I think Syria will not deeply intrude on personal freedoms.' He then suggested that 'customs' would be taken into account.
His promise had been met with scepticism, but the government has kept a hands-off approach to bars and restaurants serving alcohol in the capital, or imposing dress codes, until now.
The new law allows for bikinis in swimming pools and beaches belonging to private hotels and resorts, but states that 'appropriate swimwear that respects public decency and the feelings of different segments of society' must be worn in public beaches, and says women have to wear a loose covering over their swimwear before entering the water.
Men were also told to cover their chests when not swimming.
There are a number of private resorts and luxury hotels alongside the Mediterranean coast that are well beyond the means of most Syrians, where women would be allowed to wear 'normal western swimwear', according to the regulation, as long as long as they were 'within the limits of public taste'.
'In effect, only women who can afford luxury venues are free to choose what they wear — others must wear a burkini,' wrote Haid Haid, a Syrian academic and senior fellow at Chatham House, in a post on X.
There had been reports last month of officials already instructing women to start wearing burkinis in public. A Syrian activist, Joseph Megarbane, said the governor of Latakia, which is home to a large number of minorities, had asked church leaders to instruct Christian women to wear the swimwear at beaches.
The move will be supported by Sharaa's sizeable base of Islamist militiamen and supporters as the president comes under increasing criticism by Islamist hardliners for failing to impose Islamic law. Both al-Qaeda clerics and the Islamic State have assailed him and the new government.
The former militant, who until a few months ago had a $10 million bounty put on his head by the US, has sought to reinvent himself as a moderate figure who can represent all Syrians.
After Saudi mediation, Donald Trump agreed to meet him last month, and later praised him as he lifted all sanctions on Syria. Marcio Rubio, the US secretary of state, later said that American intelligence believed that Sharaa's government would collapse in weeks if sanctions had remained in place, sparking a new civil war.
The country remains deeply divided as Sharaa tries to negotiate an agreement with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which controls the oil-rich east, and other militia leaders who remain suspicious of the new president.
Minorities such as the Druze in the south have also been wary of joining his government, especially after government loyalists massacred hundreds of members of Assad's Alawite sect in March, in response to several attacks by insurgents.
The government's choice of justice minister soon after Assad's overthrow had further raised concerns. Shadi al-Waisi had been filmed presiding over the execution of two women in Idlib in 2015, when was a jurist with Sharaa's group. They had both been accused of prostitution.
Officials later said that it was a different era, and Sharaa was not interested in repeating the Idlib experience across Syria. The president has been more focused on ensuring that the long-sanctioned country receives adequate fuel supplies and setting decent salaries for civil servants — attempts to show Syrians that Assad's overthrow will lead to a better life after a bloody civil war that killed half a million people.