A picturesque Algerian coastal town, renowned for its stunning Mediterranean vistas, has become the unlikely epicentre of a cultural clash over men’s swimwear.
Chetaïbi, a town of 8,000 residents, thrives on seasonal tourism, drawing thousands to its turquoise waters, rocky coves, and forested hills each summer.
This economic reliance has historically fostered a welcoming atmosphere.
“The mood is warm, welcoming, colorful, bustling – no hostility toward bathers, not in words, not in looks,” Salah Edine Bey, a long-time resident, said.
“People here have a tradition of hospitality.”
But a shift came earlier in July when the town’s mayor issued a decree, catching vacationers and local businesses off guard.
The order banned beachgoers from wearing Bermuda shorts, deeming the attire “indecent” in contrast to the longer, looser styles favoured by more conservative male beachgoers.
“These summer outfits disturb the population, they go against our society’s moral values and sense of decency,” Mayor Layachi Allaoua wrote.
“The population can no longer tolerate seeing foreigners wandering the streets in indecent clothing.”
The order sparked immediate backlash from officials, including in the regional capital Annaba, who called on the mayor to revoke it.
The mayor reversed the decree within two days. On Facebook, he insisted his order was not driven by Islamist pressure, but by a desire to preserve “peace and tranquility” for both residents and guests.
Still, the episode tapped into deeper tensions over religion, identity, and public space in a country that remains haunted by a civil war that killed an estimated 200,000 people throughout the 1990s. The conflict began in 1991, when the army canceled elections that an Islamist party was set to win.
The so-called “black decade” ended long ago. But it left unresolved some underlying friction between political Islam and Algeria’s military-backed secular state.
“Even though Islamists lost the war in the 1990s, they never gave up on their invasive and intrusive ideological project, which has gained ground in society,” sociologist Redouane Boudjemaâ said.
For some, the beach debate echoed that earlier era, when Islamist-run…
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