Italian plans beaches for Muslim women

Italian plans beaches for Muslim women

8/3/2006, 10:23 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
ROME (AP) — An Italian resort plans to create all-female beach sections for Muslim women wishing to shed their headscarves and long robes to enjoy the sun in privacy, officials said Thursday.

Riccione, a resort town on Italy's eastern coast, will let hotels set up partitions on the shoreline to satisfy requests from growing numbers of Arab and Muslim tourists.

"Our beaches are big enough to answer this need," said Loretta Villa, Riccione's councilwoman. "We live on tourism and we can't survive if we don't satisfy the requests of our customers."

By making some areas off-limits to men, observant Muslim women will be able to ease up on religious restrictions to cover up if men are present, Villa said.
The reserved beaches would be waited on by by waitresses and watched over by women lifeguards.

The partitions will not reach into the sea as a section, Villa said.

To allow Muslim women to swim without covering up in robes and headscarves, Riccione would consider building reserved seaside swimming pools, she said.