Why Muslim men don't have to swim covered like Muslim women?

A brilliant question and hard to answer, I have to admit.

I will try to answer it, but I admit that I don't have a credible answer at this moment. I promise to continue searching and reflecting to find out.

But please note that my inability to offer a credible answer doesn't mean that there is no answer. In the past, I had no answer to similar brilliant questions but eventually I got to convincing answers.

So, before I start answering the question, please note that I know that some of the Islamic laws might have been influenced by men's supremacy and jealousy. After all, the jurist of Islam (who have been mainly male) are as human as those of Christians and Jews.

"Indeed, it is We who sent down the Quran and indeed, We will be its guardian." Quran 15:9. While Allah has clearly promised in this verse to protect the Quran as a scripture, and he has for more than 1400 years, he doesn't promise to protect it from misinterpretation.

In fact, decades after prophet's death, Muslim scholars had to carefully screen the Islamic history and prophet Mohammed's legacy to identify and isolate every biased and inauthentic information. Indeed, the Scholars did a brilliant job and purified the Islamic literature from many false statements made by Muslims (maliciously or innocently).

Similarly, I believe any inherited  law needs to be regularly screened to make sure that the following historical biases have not negatively contaminated such laws:

1- Gender bias (male vs female)
2- Racial bias (white vs colored)
3- Religious bias
4- Sectarian bias
5- Cultural or geographical biases.

Let's go back to the valid question: Why Muslim men don't have to swim covered like women?

Quran 42:13 says "He has ordained for you of religion what He enjoined upon Noah and that which We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad]"

The word "for you" in the above verse is clear that God's rules are not for his Benefit but for the benefit of people (his creation). I believe God as the creator knows what is good for us and what is harmful. The benefits or harms of any practice are the basis on which permissions or restrictions are imposed by God. This is further stressed in Quran 2:57  "They did not hurt us (by rebelling); they only hurt their own souls." also Quran 2:130 "Who would forsake the religion of Abraham, except one who fools his own soul?" also Quran 31:13 "And [mention, O Muhammad], when Luqman said to his son while he was instructing him, "O my son, do not associate [anything] with Allah . Indeed, association [with him] is great injustice." As per Quran, people hurt, fool and do great injustice to themselves when they don't follow God's path. 

Restrictions imposed by any authority may look unfair, and it maybe so, but not necessarily. For example, we offer cheese to a mouse to trap him and not because we like him or wish to reward him. On the other hand,  we put birds in a cage because we love them and not because we hate them or want to suppress them. That's how God works. He has sets of dos and don'ts for our own good.

Of course, l know that throughout history, religious communities and jurists might have made up their own laws in the name of God to fulfill their hidden biases. We need to watch out for them.

Medical reasons:

To answer the above mentioned brilliant question, I need credible research to be done on benefits and harms of swimming uncovered on both men and women. Unfortunately, we have no access to such credible research or data to make a decision. So, medically, neither of us can say if it's equally healthy for men and women to swim uncovered. Neither the short term effects nor the long term ones are not known.

We need decades of credible data to be able to make a reliable conclusion if swimming uncovered is equally healthy or not female and males.

Social reasons:

I wonder, is it a coincident that vast majority of movies show the sexy bodies of women and not men?

Is it wrong to say that men are attracted sexually while women are attracted emotionally? (see the above illustration).

Is it unsafe to assume that men stare at women much more than women do?

So, is this why men can uncover while women can't?

Is it because women are under higher risks of being harassed if they do uncover compared to men?

Having said that, out of solidarity with a covered Muslim wife, I agree that and Muslim husband better swim covered. I agree that a Muslim husband swimming uncovered with his covered wife is totally awkward.

I shall continue to reflect on the brilliant question ...