Amid the outrage over towns in the French Riviera banning "burkinis," Henry Stewart of London got to thinking about just what harm the piece of clothing had ever done to him.
In a matter of hours, tens of thousands of social media users had shared his comment, mostly in apparent agreement with the sentiment. The takeaway? Why ban burkinis, or burqas, if no one wearing them has ever caused you any harm? And by that metric, why not target the clothes of those who have caused plenty: men in suits.
A common chorus rose. Ban suits, not burkinis.
It took a comment like Stewart's to crystallize the bewilderment many felt upon reading and seeing pictures of the burkini ban being enforced in France.
"A man in a suit led us on a disastrous and illegal war. Men in suits led the banks and crashed the world economy. Other men in suits then increased the misery to millions through austerity," wrote Stewart. "If we are to start telling people what to wear, maybe we should ban suits."
Dissenters have, of course, written their own comments. Some have opined that burqas may not harm them, but they harm the women who wear them. Others said the ban should be expanded to include the dress of the Arab men who ask their wives to cover themselves, and who run corrupt banks and commit war crimes just like their suit-wearing counterparts.
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