France’s burkini ban wasn’t just about Islam, but about men policing women’s bodies, yet again

France’s burkini ban wasn’t just about Islam, but about men policing women’s bodies, yet again

Centuries of patriarchal history were captured in this week’s pictures of policemen on the beach in Nice, France, forcing a woman to take off her shirt and headscarf to comply with the so-called “burkini ban.” Across countries and cultures, women have been seen as offensive for showing their ankles, necks, faces, hair, arms, legs—or, in…