Berlin to allow swimmers go topless

Women in Berlin will soon be allowed to go topless at the city’s public swimming pools, like men, the Berlin state government said Thursday.

The new bathing rules allowing everyone to go swimming without covering their torsos followed a discrimination complaint by a woman who was not allowed to go topless in a swimming pool in the capital.

The woman, whose identity was not revealed, had turned to the senate’s ombudsperson’s office for equal treatment to demand that women, like men, can swim topless, the Berlin senate for justice, diversity and anti-discrimination said in a written statement.

In reaction to the complaint and the ombudsman’s involvement in the case, the Berliner Baederbetriebe, which runs the city’s public pools, decided to change its clothing rules, the statement said.

In the past, women who bared their breasts at Berlin pools were asked to cover themselves or to leave the pool, and were sometimes banned from returning.

It was not immediately clear when exactly the new bathing rules would be applied.