Authorities in Riccione, a resort town on Italy's eastern coast, will let hotels set up all-female partitions on the beach to allow Muslim women to remove their headscarves and long gowns in order to enjoy the sun in privacy. The Muslim women's beaches would be waited on by waitresses and watched over by women lifeguards, officials said.

An Italian official said that the plan was aimed at meeting the growing demands from Arab and Muslim tourists."Our beaches are big enough to answer this need," said Loretta Villa, Riccione's councilwoman. "We live on tourism and we can't survive if we don't satisfy the requests of our customers," she added. By creating areas that are off-limits to men, veiled Muslim women will be able to "ease up on religious restrictions to cover up if men are present", Villa said.

She noted that the partitions will not reach into the sea, adding that Riccone would consider building reserved seaside swimming pools in order to allow Muslim women to swim without covering up in robes and headscarves. The Islamic headscarf is meant to cover a Muslim woman's hair, neck, throat and the upper part of her chest to protect her from the eyes of men outside her family. But the Hijab isn't just about clothing, it is mainly to preserve women's dignity and honor. In the Qur'an, Allah (SWT) instructs his followers on how to behave towards each other by saying in Surat An-Nur that all Muslim men and women should "lower their gaze". Italian Muslim groups estimate that there are more than 1.2 million Muslims out of the country's total population of about 57 million, making Islam the second religion in Italy after Roman Catholicism.

Source: Islam Online