Article: Hijab, Burkinis, and Modest Swimwear at Your Aquatic Facility

If your lifeguards have ever hesitated when a swimmer walked in wearing a burkini, a hijab, or a full-coverage rash guard — that hesitation is a training gap, not a personal failing. Most aquatic staff have never been given clear guidance on this. They're left to make a judgment call in real time, in front of a patron, with a line forming behind them. That's not a fair position to put anyone in.

Here's what your team needs to know.

Modest Swimwear Is Not New, and It's Not Rare

Modest swimwear has been part of aquatic culture around the world for a very long time. In countries across the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia — many of which have thriving aquatics industries and strong swimming cultures — modest swimwear is simply the norm. Burkinis are sold at major retailers globally. Swim-specific hijabs are designed for performance in the water. These are not workarounds or improvisations. They are purpose-built aquatic garments worn by millions of swimmers.

In the United States, modest swimwear is increasingly common across Muslim, Jewish, and some Christian communities, as well as among people who choose it for personal, medical, or cultural reasons. Your staff will encounter it. The question is whether they're prepared.

Modest Swimwear Is Swimwear

A burkini, a hijab worn in the water, a full-length rash guard, leggings paired with a swim top — these are all legitimate swimwear choices. The reason a person wears them does not matter for the purposes of facility access. What matters is that none of these garments pose a safety or water quality risk that a standard swimsuit doesn't also pose.

The argument that modest swimwear affects water chemistry or filtration systems does not hold up. Fabric is fabric. If your facility allows rash guards and board shorts — and most do — there is no technical basis for restricting a burkini or swim hijab.

Slide and Attraction Manufacturers Have Already Figured This Out

One of the most common objections facility managers raise is about water slides and aquatic attractions — whether modest swimwear is permitted on rides and features. The answer, for most major manufacturers, is yes. Many slide and aquatic feature manufacturers have updated their rider guidelines to explicitly permit swim-specific modest garments, including burkinis and swim hijabs, when they fit securely and do not have loose fabric or metal hardware. If you have not reviewed your manufacturer's current rider requirements recently, now is the time. Posting outdated or overly restrictive signage on your slides is both a legal risk and a barrier to the communities you're supposed to serve.

The Legal Exposure Is Real

Turning away a swimmer because of religious or cultural dress can constitute religious discrimination under Title VII and, depending on your jurisdiction, state civil rights law. Municipal facilities have faced formal complaints and legal action over exactly this. The risk is not hypothetical.

If your current policy — written or unwritten — results in Muslim women, Sikh swimmers, or anyone else being turned away or questioned at the door because of their clothing, your facility has a problem that needs to be addressed before an incident, not after one.

Modesty Includes More Than Clothing

This is something many facility managers have not considered. For some swimmers, modesty is not only expressed through what they wear — it's also expressed through who they swim with. Some individuals and families practice gender-separated swimming as part of their religious or cultural observance. This might mean a woman who swims only in the presence of other women, or a family that requests a private lane or session for gender-separated use.

Your facility may not be able to accommodate every request, but having a clear, respectful process for handling accommodation requests matters. Staff who have never thought about this before will not know how to respond in the moment. A short briefing that normalizes the request and gives staff a path forward — even if that path is “let me connect you with a supervisor” — is far better than a confused or dismissive response at the front desk.

What Your Staff Actually Need

Clear written policy is the foundation. If your current swimwear policy is vague enough to be interpreted as excluding modest dress, rewrite it. Something like “swimwear designed for aquatic use is welcome, including full-coverage styles” removes ambiguity and gives staff something concrete to point to.

Beyond the policy, staff need practice. Not a slide deck — actual practice. Role-play the scenario where a patron walks in wearing a burkini and another patron complains. Walk through how to respond respectfully to both. Practice the words. That is what makes the difference between a staff member who freezes and one who handles it calmly and correctly.

Brief your team before peak season, not during it.

A Note on Enforcement Consistency

One of the most common ways modest swimwear policies go wrong is inconsistent enforcement — where a burkini gets flagged but an identical amount of coverage in a wetsuit does not. Inconsistency is where discrimination complaints originate. Train your staff to apply the same standard to everyone, and build in a clear escalation path so a front-line guard is not making a unilateral call on something this sensitive.

What an Inclusive Policy Actually Looks Like

Your swimwear policy should describe what is not permitted — loose cotton clothing, denim, anything with metal hardware that could damage pool surfaces — and make clear that everything else is welcome. That framing includes rather than excludes by default.

The same logic applies to your apparel signage. If the swimwear diagram posted at your entrance only shows a two-piece swimsuit and board shorts, you are implicitly telling a significant portion of your community that they do not belong here. Updating that signage to include modest swimwear options is a small change that sends a clear message about who your facility is actually for.

Closing

Aquatic spaces should be for everyone. That is not a political statement — it is the operational standard we should all be holding ourselves to. If your current policies, training, or enforcement patterns are creating barriers for Muslim swimmers, modest dressers, or anyone navigating gender-separated swimming practices, this is a fixable problem. It starts with giving your team the information, the practice, and the clear policies they need to get it right.

If this is something your staff are navigating and you want structured training around it, that is exactly the kind of work I do. Reach out and let's talk about what your team needs.