msnbc.com

Harvard University has banned men from one of its gyms for a few hours a week, a move to accommodate Muslim women who, for religious and cultural reasons, cannot exercise comfortably in their presence.

The policy is already unpopular with many on campus, however, including some women who consider it sexist.

395px-muslim_woman_in_yemen.jpg
The new look in gym wear?

“I think that it’s incorrect in a college setting to institute a policy in which half of the campus gets wronged or denied a resource that’s supposed to be for everyone,” said student Lucy Caldwell, who also wrote a column in The Harvard Crimson newspaper critical of the new hours. Student Ola Aljawhary, who is Muslim and works out elsewhere on campus but is not one of the women who requested the change, rejected that argument.

“The majority should be willing to compromise,” she said. “I think that’s just basic courtesy. ” “We get special requests from religious groups all the time and we try to honor them whenever possible,” he said, noting that the school has designated spaces for Muslim and Hindu students to pray. The special hours allow the Muslim women, who adhere to traditional dress codes by covering their hair and most of their skin while in public, to dress more appropriately for exercising, said Susan Marine, director of the women’s center.

Is this how we are to assimilate into the Muslim community? Where Muslims are the majority, are they willing to compromise?




  1. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    #36 – OhForTheLoveOfChrist….

    Yes… Some Muslim women asked for exclusive gym hours… No, the gym didn’t respond by making Muslim only hours, it’s open to ALL women.

    I have no issues with reading as obviously I’m the one here who has actually read the article. If you are having trouble, there is a picture of the door to the gym with the sign that outlines the hours and you can see, with your eyes, printed in clear English, that the hours are for women… not just Muslim women.

    And now I am done. Choose to know the facts, or not, on your own. Ignorance is truly its own reward.

  2. Steve-O says:

    OFTLO is correct, it’s women only, not Muslim women only.

    Around here they have a women’s only gym. No men allowed at all.

  3. Canuck47 says:

    I don’t have a problem with women only gym hours, what does bother me is the politically correct idiot who justified it as an accommodation of Muslin women.

  4. Starven says:

    Obese women feel more comfortable exercising where men cant stare at them, that is fair enough, they can have their own gym, its a personal choice. So women only gyms are acceptable. As are men only football teams (however that for the safety of the women i guess)

    however i still believe that people should assimilate to some extent and embrace the new culture that they have moved to.

    Its all about “Multiculturalism” and acceptance of your host country’s values, we do not want to see “Multi” Culturalism.

    Crazy radicals from any faction can go and befoul the hot exhaust pipes of trucks. Peace love and tolerance are great but stubborn fundamentalists radicals are a curse who seeks to undo our way of life that we have earned to live that way.

    If they want sharia law, fine, do in in their own country and hopefully the rest of the sane world will place sanctions against them in peaceful protest. where they gonna get their bacon from then!

  5. Nimby says:

    I had the “pleasure” of staying at a hotel in a strict Muslim country. My lady friend and I figured we would have the pool pretty much to ourselves. Nope. Several families were poolside. Most of the men walked around in skimpy trunks but the women were wearing what appeared to be a wrist to throat to ankle body suit with a puffy dress-like arrangement covering bosom to mid-thigh. There was some sort of loose mesh cap that covered hair and came down around and over the nose and mouth.

    My point? If they can make such concessions in places where Shari’a law is strictly enforced, they should be able to make such concessions in an American college.

  6. patrick says:

    #43 I believe you are correct.

    How far would you let them go, as a private institution? If a group claimed to be uncomfortable around homosexuals, would you agree to a set of hours for hetero’s only?

  7. Mister Catshit says:

    #16, benson,

    This is not a slippary slope. Although OFTLO answered you very well, I still feel an overwhelming urge to point out you are a fucking bigoted asswipe. I can’t answer as to what happened in England. I don’t care. But the rest of the garbage is just that, garbage spewed by someone with garbage for brains.

    #18, impetigo,

    Christians control most of America. I don’t know where you get the idea they are the most “hated” group. I thought that would have belonged to the Muslims so many Christians seem so intent on blaming for everything.

    *

    BTW, today is Tuesday. The name comes from an old Norse god, Tyr, a god of war. Yesterday was Monday. Yup, a corruption of Moon day. Tomorrow is Wednesday, which comes from Woden, the Norse chief god. We are now in March. Named after the Roman god, Mars. Next month is April. That comes from the Latin for to open. May is named for the Greek Goddess Maia.

    So the origin of the name means little. It is the name that has come into common English usage. None of them give me any urge to celebrate any Norse or Roman gods. Nor does St. Valentine’s Day give me any great urge to beat my mistress or jerk off. Besides, who the hell was St. Valentine.

    Shit, Christmas? Your Christ was born in August yet you celebrate it the end of December? Easter? Officially it is a 40 or 50 day period. But no one even knows when Hey Zeus died. And you want to cry over St Valentines Day?

  8. patrick says:

    Mister Catshit, after you finish wiping the spittle off of your monitor can you give me your insight to the question I asked in #44?

    I am concerned that your BP may be a bit high. Maybe a glass of good red wine might help…

    Take care.

  9. Mister Catshit says:

    #44 & 46, patrick,

    So you are asking if I would tolerate a gray discrimination where someone one might or might not be gay. The answer is no.

    I know that all the gays would be eyeballing you, undressing you with their eyes. Too bad. You will just have to suffer through their desiring your man ass. (hey, ya got those man titties too?)

    If there is a problem, or one develops, which so far I am unaware of, then the time to react would be then.

  10. patrick says:

    #47 LOL What a hypocrite. I knew if I gave you enough rope you would show your double digit IQ and say s/g stupid. ROFL!

  11. hey maen says:

    sexist and racist

  12. please says:

    I go to Harvard. The gym is in the Quad and is one of the least-used gyms on campus (there are two other WIDELY trafficked, better gyms that don’t have any restrictive hours. Not only that but EVERY upper class house has it’s own small gym.) Furthermore, we’re talking a couple hours a week at fairly inconvenient times. No one here is suffering. There are plenty of other places to work out. And if a group of men made a logical argument as to why they too should have their own hours, Harvard would accommodate. But they haven’t.

  13. J gagnepain says:

    As a upper middle class white male who attends Harvard, I really don’t have a problem with this. There are countless, better, facilities within walking distance. This is the least used, and least modern facility. We’re supposed to be the most enlightened center of education in the world-the learning institute who relishes cultural diversity and celebrates our uniqueness. It seems to me that people are just being spoiled because they can’t have everything they want the second they want it.


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