No “Burkini” ban in Netherlands says Deputy PM

The Dutch government has no plans to ban the so-called Burkini - full body swimwear worn by mostly Muslim women, Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher said to RTL Nieuws, calling it a "bizarre idea". The Burkini is currently a matter of debate in France, where a number of French mayors banned the swimwear in their town. They are getting support from the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls. "That is not the right solution", Asscher, also the Minister of Social Affairs, said to the broadcaster. "The problem is that some people have the backward idea that a woman should not show herself. That's the problem that we should fight. A woman self decides what she wears." And if that is a full body swimsuit, so be it. The Deputy Prime Minister added that he understands that the strange swimwear may result in discomfort for some people. "But for a ban you need a good reason, and I do not see one." PVV leader Geert Wilders, on the other hand, is all in favor of a ban. "Firstly it is a symbol of women's oppression, secondly it is a symbol of an ideology, the Islam, which declared war on us. We also do not allow Nazi swimsuits, another totalitarian ideology that declared war on us."