(Not defending either, just pointing out that any society can have ridiculous rules. Or not, depending on how you see it. Funny how they generally apply to women, though.)

Why it doesn’t have anything to do with Islam? Simply because these pictures represent a very small percentage of Muslims, and to be precise, you will see this only in the Gulf, and to be more precise, you will see most of this mainly in Saudi Arabia.

Now, this dress is not Islamic one, but it is a traditional one which they inherit from father to son. I’m not saying it is right, but I’m saying it has nothing to do with Islam as a religion, even though those who wear them are Muslims, but they don’t represent any rule of Islam.

The picture you suggested in your link was presented in my blog here. And as I said many times before, I don’t see anything wrong in it except the bad design. It could have been tailored better.

In that sense, yes, Islam forbid woman from going to public naked, and I don’t see that different from a nun in Christianity. In fact, I don’t think a nun will be dressed in bikini if she decided to go swimming in public.

Anyway, details of woman dress was discussed several times in this blog. If someone is interested, you can start with this post.

The latest fashionable islamic “swim”wear.

http://www.ahiida.com/index.php?a=results&subcat=65

Good for the wading competition, but I don’t see them setting any olympic records.

:-P