Waxing and bikini wearing are sins, conservative Turkish columnist says

Wearing bikinis and going to the waxing salon are contrary to the dictates of Islam because they involve exposing private parts to strangers, according to a conservative columnist, the daily Hürriyet reported.

Bikinis expose a woman's body to strangers even if the strangers are all women, according to daily Takvim columnist Ali Rıza Demircan.

Demircan further claimed that Islam called for the covering of the entire body except the face, hands and feet.

Demircan called on women who wear bikinis on the beach to repent.

The columnist also said women should not expose their genitalia or their thighs to others, even if those people were sisters or daughters.

"If women are incapable of taking care of their own hygiene because they are too old or ill, only then can they go to a female coiffeur or have another woman wax them," Demircan said.

Women's rights violations during the Islamist AKP party's rule are raising more and more concerns from feminists and opposition politicians in Turkey.