At first, when the BBC claimed that the Swiss region of Appenzell was “conservative” for banning hikers from tromping nude through the frigid Alps, I tittered a bit to myself. Conservative! They don’t know from conservative. Try living under the thumb of King George for the entirety of your 20s and then we can talk conservative.
But then I read that this self-same Swiss region only gave women the right to vote in 1990! Zuh? Can you even do that by region? Anyway. This article is about naked hiking. And Appenzell may have overstepped its legal bounds:
Some Swiss lawyers are describing Appenzell’s decision to prohibit naked hiking as akin to using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
“The Swiss parliament voted to remove public nudity from the penal code in 1991,” he explains. “So at a federal level, naked hiking is not punishable, and Appenzell’s laws are not higher than the federal ones.”
“I estimate there are only around 20 to 25 naked hikers in the whole of Switzerland,” says lawyer Daniel Kettiger. “So really arresting them and fining them is a bit silly. And our courts do have better things to do.”
What’s more, Mr Kettiger points out, Appenzell may have over-reached itself legally in deciding to introduce a prohibition.
Okay. So let’s just review, shall we? Women can vote in Appenzell, Switzerland as of 1990. Public nudity is no longer a crime as of 1991. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for public nudity. But if I had to choose between freezing my tits off in the Alps or voting for my government representatives, I think I’d prefer the latter.
Read the whole article here.
-Eden
