Posted on 10/10/2006 5:45:38 PM PDT by nuconvert
US debates accommodation of Muslim women's modesty AFP
October 8, 2006
DEARBORN, Michigan, USA -- For some women, it can be a little creepy to have men watch them exercise at the gym. For Ammerah Saidi, it's a violation of her religious beliefs as a Muslim. So when her local gym started letting men work out on days that had previously been reserved for women only, Saidi complained.
At first, the management at the suburban Detroit Fitness USA balked at concerns that the women could be observed from the small area where men were allowed to exercise. But after Saidi presented a petition from over 200 members - and the story hit the local news - a wall was built so the women could exercise in privacy.
Moves such as this have spurred a debate about the intrusion of religion on public life and public space. Several bloggers proposed a boycott because the gym had "caved" to the demands of "extremists," but even more moderate observers are concerned.
"Private businesses should not be coerced by a minority," said Zudhi Jasser, founder of the Phoenix-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy.
Jasser, a practicing Muslim, said that while it is important to protect the right to practice religion he fears the affects of allowing religious beliefs to dominate how people interact in the public sphere. It can lead to ghettoization and isolation among those who impose the beliefs and a backlash among those who feel imposed upon, he said.
Federal laws protect Americans from being discriminated against based upon their religion and Muslim women have long been allowed to wear a hijab in official identification photographs, a freedom that Jasser welcomes.
Local governments with large Muslim populations have also begun to alter the rules to accommodate modesty restrictions. The Dearborn, Michigan school district instituted same-sex only swim classes in 1992 and a Michigan county changed its public swimming pool swimwear rules earlier this month to accommodate Muslim women who want to cover themselves fully.
The problem is when practices become exclusionary, Jasser said, such as when private Muslim schools ask that men be banned from watching when girls play sports games against other schools.
"If you tell fathers they can't come to see their daughters at basketball games it's going to in the end create embitterment," he said, noting that "these demands are not representative of the majority of Muslims."
In a country where the president asks the country to pray and where court battles are fought over public school prayer and the right to post the Ten Commandments in government buildings, it can seem odd to focus on the infrequent demands of the small but growing Muslim community.
Saidi bristled at the controversy over her request for a wall at her gym and said it was simply a matter of asking a company to adhere to its promise of gender-specific workout facilities.
She blames the media for creating a false image of Islam as an extremist faith followed by militants and terrorists that has led to a general hatred and mistrust. "This is also why I understood why my asking for a partition in the gym was met with such distrust and opposition in the US - because my reasons for wanting it were religiously justified," she said. "Too bad I chose Islam as the religion to justify my reasons."
Rising levels of discrimination following the terrorist attacks of September 11 led a number of Muslim women to stop wearing their headscarves in public for fear of attracting unwanted attention, said Dawud Walid, director of the Michigan branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations.
But it has also created a new kind of backlash as previously assimilated Muslims fought to protect their rights and to examine their roots. "Young adults attached themselves more to their Muslim identity than their parents, so while the older women were taking off their head scarves, the younger women started to don them partly out of rebellion but also many people began to reexamine their religion," Walid said.
Those women will find a much more welcoming environment in the United States than in many other countries such as France which has banned female students from wearing head scarves in schools, said Imam Sayed Hassan Al Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan.
"America showed more tolerance about Muslim individuals preserving their identity including women wearing head scarves," he said. "It has become part of our national landscape and I am very grateful for that."
"these demands are not representative of the majority of Muslims."
Thanks for speaking out again, Dr. Jasser
arggg. We are so soft.
"Too bad I chose Islam..."
You said a mouthful there, girl. You have no idea how right you are.
Well... I'm afraid that it's too late for her. If any men saw her before this partition was built, and it sounds like that's the case, then she'll have to be stoned to death for being a whore. Them's the breaks in the ROP.
>>it can seem odd to focus on the infrequent demands of the small but growing Muslim community.
The excessive political correctness implicit in that statement from the article is breathtaking.
No, it isn't odd, not one little bit, you foolish journalist.
No. Just tell them before they come in, "No special treatment. If you don't like it, find a better country."
The right of contract is paramount. The company should deliver the product or be punished by law.
My perspective is a bit different you see the media had no bearing on my hatred for your cult.
I formed my opinion after 3000 of my fellow countrymen and innocents were SLAUGHTERED by your religion of peace.
Unless the contract specified that there would be women-only days/times, then you are dead wrong. If the contract states, as most do, that the customs of the gym may be changed at any time by management without prior notice (i.e.: the hours of the gym may be changed), then they have no legalright, as you ave assumed in your contract spiel.
I have never seen a gym contract that specified the hours and/or restrictions of a coed gym. Have you?
They couldn't fulfill their obligation, so the private company should have rescinded her membership and given her $1 for her troubles.
Why doesn't she just join a Curves? It's women only. Other women besides Muslims don't like being watched by men and that's one of the reasons they join it.
Give a refund?
She got 199 other members to side with her so I'm guessing the decision to build the wall was more economic based then it was caving to the demands of one mooooslim woman !!!
I have often wondered how Curves could get away with that and what they do if/when a male wants to use their services. How can they legally offer a sex-segregated service?
That's the reason I assume they made promises, probably both in writing and orally, which they failed to keep.
In any case, even if the limitation on unisex was only given orally, a contract is a contract, and when they take your money after making a deal, they have to keep it or the Constitution is in the dumper.
Can't let some doufous with a poorly run gymnasium destroy the fundamental basis of capitalist life in America.
Once you sign the contract, and then find you can't deliver, the indemnity is far beyond $1. In fact, there may well be criminal penalties if the action can be construed as fraudulent.
It might not be in her area, or she might not have been told about it. We have all sorts of exercise places around here ~ some of them unisex.
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