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Beach for Muslim women planned in Italy
By ARIEL DAVID

Associated Press Writer

ROME - Hotels at an Italian seaside resort are eager to act on the town's
decision to authorize the creation of all-female beach sections for Muslim
women, with at least one hotel owner saying Friday that plans are already
under way to open the first of such secluded areas next month.

The city council of Riccione, a popular resort on Italy's Adriatic coast
about 90 miles east of Florence, has said it is prepared to authorize
requests to set up partitions on parts of the shoreline to satisfy requests
from the town's growing numbers of Arab and Muslim tourists.

"They can have anything they want, but they can't go to the beach, at least
not without all those heavy clothes," Attilio Cenni, owner of the upscale
Grand Hotel des Bains, said of his female Muslim guests.

Cenni said he plans to open the first secluded section starting in September
on a stretch of shoreline of about 1,000 square meters (10,000 square feet)
and to expand further next season across the more isolated beaches on
Riccione's outskirts.

He also plans a TV advertising campaigns in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates, Cenni told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Popular with German and French tourists, Riccione's mass-tourism venues have
recently started to attract thousands of Arab and Muslim visitors each year,
mostly from the conservative Arabian peninsula, city officials say.

Supporters of the idea say that the separate beaches would allow observant
Muslim women to shed their headscarves and long robes and enjoy the sun in
privacy; religious restrictions otherwise oblige them to cover up if men are
present.

"I can only be in favor of such a proposal," said Tomas Corazza, manager of
the Hotel Mediterraneo. "It allows them to use the beach while respecting
their traditions and their religion."

Corazza didn't have immediate plans to open a beach for Muslims this season
but said he would advertise this new feature in a mailing list he sends to
some 3,000 Arabs who are frequent guests at the hotel.

Cenni said he was already discussing with authorities the only snag in the
proposal - the fact that the partitions won't reach into the sea but will
have to stop short of the waterline to allow public passage.

While Riccione's municipality would consider authorizing the construction of
reserved seaside swimming pools, Cenni said he hopes he will be allowed to
close-off the entire beach with covered partitions and have female
lifeguards patrol the sea in water scooters to keep men away. In Italy, all
shorelines must be accessible to the public.

"That sounds a little bit like a fantasy," said Andrea Cicchetti, a
spokesman for Riccione's mayor.

But Cenni insists that if the partitions are mounted on isolated beaches the
inconvenience to passers-by and swimmers will be minimal, allowing his
guests to swim without having to don headscarves and robes again.

"These are areas where there is little passage and any problem could be
solved with common sense and sensitivity," he said. "We want to make a beach
where these ladies will be free."

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