© Ahiida Burqini Swimwear and Hijood Sportswear / Facebook
"It's just been so hectic... I can tell you that online on Sunday, we received 60 orders [for burkinis] - all of them non-Muslim,"Aheda Zanetti, a Lebanese-born Australian fashion designer for Muslim women who claims to have developed the burkini, told AFP, adding that she usually receives 10 to 12 orders on Sundays. The 48-year-old designer says she has received a lot of letters from women of diverse backgrounds since the "burkini issue" came under the spotlight. Some were cancer survivors and others just wanted to protect their skin from the sun.
"A lot of the correspondence... was that they are survivors of skin cancer and they've always been looking for something like this, saying, 'Thank god we've found someone like this producing such a swimsuit,'" she said.
However, there have also been critical e-mails, Zanetti said. One asked the designer why she wanted to cover up women, claiming that the French "prefer our women to be naked." Zanetti reportedly launched a series of swimsuits and sportswear especially for Muslim women under the trademark Ahiida back in 2004, and has sold more than 700,000 garments since 2008. Earlier on Saturday, Zanetti told the Sydney Morning Herald that 45 percent of her clients are non-Muslim women.
Comment: France is a bastion of democracy and freedom of expression! ...unless it comes to Muslims. In these times those who have been victimized and made homeless by Western governments are then further victimized by being deemed terrorists because of their dress. What rank hypocrisy from the West!
See:
In defense of the burka: How bans do nothing to counter radicalization