The Neptunium swimming pool, which reopened this weekend after six years of major renovation works, will permit people to swim in a burkini (a swimsuit typically worn by Muslim women, covering their entire body) so everyone can enjoy the facilities.
The new rules state that "swimwear strictly reserved for this purpose must be worn" and specify that "only traditional swimming costumes are permitted," as well as "wetsuits designed for swimming or diving that partially or totally cover the body."
The municipal authorities' intention is to "allow everyone to take part in sport and physical activity. Nothing should stand in the way of that," Schaerbeek city councillor for sports Thomas Eraly told RTBF.
Credit: Neptunium
"As long as you are dressed for swimming: come and swim! That is the main message," he said. "We all know what practising sport does for people's health and mental and psychological well-being. We do not want to hold anyone back in our community. That is our motto."
This summer (as well as in previous years), the authorisation of the burkini at the Flow swimming pool in Anderlecht provoked fierce criticism, among others from Georges-Louis Bouchez, the leader of the Francophone liberal MR party.
Now, too, Bouchez said on social media that in Brussels, "the neutrality of the state is under attack every day by the leftists who are totally insane and complacent with religious radicalism."
"Today, we learn that swimming with your hair and body covered (like my triathlon team, for example) is an attack on the neutrality of the state, according to Georges-Louis Bouchez," responded Brussels MP Juan Benjumea. "So the state should dictate what sportswear should be worn? Where does that come from? The law taught at the University of Tehran?"
In the meantime, the Schaerbeek authorities have stressed that the hygiene and swimwear rules specify what clothing is "permitted inside the pool for both male and female swimmers."
They stressed that access to the pools will not be permitted to people who are not dressed in "a clean, decent, conventional swimming costume" reserved exclusively for swimming, people wearing any type of footwear, and people without bathing caps covering all their hair.
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"We hope that these clarifications will help to calm the debate and correct any inaccuracies," they said, adding that the Neptunium is open to "all those who wish to swim in a brand new pool, and who will respect the rules as they should."
With the beginning of the new school years, schools have now also made their return to the pool. "The swimming pool is a unique place, bringing together people of all ages, backgrounds and social classes, and it has no vocation to become a place of division and discrimination."
The Neptunium swimming pool will also offer a time slot exclusively reserved for women (and children under 10), every Sunday from 09:00 to 10:00.
