Australian burkini designer credits French ban for sales boom … to non-Muslim women
‘Whoever it was in France has done so much good for my business and for women who thought they could never buy a swimsuit like this’
The woman who invented the burkini has reaped a tenfold jump in sales since France banned her swimwear, and says her coveralls have opened a whole new sporting life for Muslim women.
Thousands of women in Europe – many non-Muslims – now buy her swimsuit to cover up at the beach, while many Muslims use the burkini to work out more freely.
No matter the buyer, designer Aheda Zanetti said her business had boomed with the controversy, which saw police parading French beaches to root out burkini-clad offenders.
“Whoever it was in France (that banned the burkini) has done so much good for my business and for women who thought they could never buy a swimsuit like this,” said the Lebanese-born designer, who has lived in Australia for more than 40 years.
Zanetti said her invention had encouraged many more Muslim women to take part in sports as it gave them an unprecedented confidence to work out with modesty, in keeping with Islam.
“It was all about women’s rights, it was all about choices,” Zanetti said.