Swimsuits for everyone!

We went to a water park the other day: Sunway Lagoon.  It's always interesting to see local people at an activity where wearing bathing suits are required.  Much of Malaysia is Muslim..  And most of the Malay women here wear headscarves all the time and sometimes socks with their sandals and sometime GLOVES and then sometimes the full burqa.  The only skin exposed part of them that you can see habitually is their face (though there are lots of non-Muslims in Malaysia, and with them you see the same gamut of skin that you would see in N. America - well, maybe not QUITE the same, but close!), and for the ultra-religious, just their eyes.  So it was interesting to see them try to swim. 

 

Some of them just go in with their regular clothes on.  Others have special suits which have long sleeves and long pants and little hoods that cover their hair and neck....I looked online and you can find suits like this under "modest swimwear"..  And, I know what you're thinking, what they wear for modesty is not unlike what I wear for sun.  And I must admit, their gear is very effective in blocking out the sun.  I admire it from a purely practical view, but  I'm thankful that I can choose to wear what I wear, and not have it subscribed to me through religion.  My suit when we went swimming was actually one of the LESS modest ones, if you can believe it.  I mean, there were some people with bikinis on, but usually, with my long-sleeved-covered-torso-shorts-attached suit on, I'm one of the unusual ones out on the beach.

 

But it's funny and ironic that I should admire what I consider to be clothing associated with religious fervour, when I can get fairly worked up over the discrepancy between men and women's freedom within ANY religion. 

 

When I mentioned my feelings to Nathan, he asked me whether, if I could, would stop wearing the long suits that I do, providing there were some (very) convincing evidence that I wouldn't get burned from the sun.  It gave me pause.  Would these women also stop wearing their headscarves if suddenly their religion changed and they were allowed to wear anything they wanted?  Or would they continue covering up just because they were used to it?  I must admit that don't know whether I would stop wearing long suits...though they might not be QUITE as long as they are now. 

 

Certainly the women here don't seem to be chafing under the yolk of headscarves.  Perhaps they also don't chafe under their burqas.  Perhaps they don't mind having to cover up when the men seem to be allowed to wear just regular street clothes. Maybe they can't imagine wearing what I wear just like I can't imagine wearing what they wear.  Despite my many travels, there are still things that I don't know about people.  Note to self:  Must keep travelling.

ACDB