ROME – An Arabic woman swimming with her child was forced to leave a pool in Florence after seen wearing the modesty suit known as a “burkini” on Tuesday.

 The news comes today from Miriam Amato, the advisory of the Italian coalition “Power to the People” who describe the scene as “humiliating”, according to local news sources. 

 “She was instructed to leave the pool with her baby, who is less than a year old, whilst they were swimming together. This is clearly a humiliating scene for any woman. Incredulous, she tried to justify herself whilst in the presence of her child, saying that it was just a swimming costume,” Amato added. The PAP member demanded explanations from the lifeguard who then “justified himself”, claiming to have received this order from his superiors, but other colleagues denied this.

 Italy as a country does not have a national ban on the full-face veil, but in some provinces local authorities have banned the full Islamic swimming costumes, although there is currently no established fines system.

 Amato has asked the council representative of the sport to send a message around all the local swimming pools in Florence to guarantee the rights of women to swim whilst dressed in a burkini, condemning as completely “unacceptable” what has happened in Costoli.

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