In future, women will be allowed to swim “topless” in Berlin’s indoor and outdoor swimming pools. After a discrimination complaint to the ombudsman for the state anti-discrimination law, the bathing establishments will apply their house and bathing rules in a gender-fair manner in the future, the Senate Department for Justice and Anti-Discrimination announced on Thursday.
A 33-year-old woman was asked by the supervisory staff at a swimming pool in Berlin-Kaulsdorf in December to cover her breasts. When she refused, she was expelled from the bath. In her complaint, she pointed out that the house and bathing rules of the bathing establishments do not make any gender-specific determinations and only prescribe the wearing of “commercial bathing suits”.
After an intervention by the ombudsman at the bathing establishments, topless swimming should now also be “possible for female people or for people with a female breast,” it said.
