Posted on 02/25/2008 8:19:03 AM PST by white trash redneck
Harvard University has moved to make Muslim women more comfortable in the gym by instituting women-only access times six hours a week to accommodate religious customs that make it difficult for some students to work out in the presence of men.
Men have not been allowed to enter the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center during certain times since Jan. 28, after members of the Harvard Islamic Society and the Harvard Women's Center petitioned the university for a more comfortable environment for women.
Harvard Islamic Society's Islamic Knowledge Committee officer Ola Aljawhary, a junior, said the women-only hours are being tested on a trial basis. The special gym hours will be analyzed over Spring Break to determine if they will continue, she said.
Aljawhary said that she does not believe that the women-only gym hours discriminate against men.
"These hours are necessary because there is a segment of the Harvard female population that is not found in gyms not because they don't want to work out, but because for them working out in a co-ed gym is uncomfortable, awkward or problematic in some way," she said.
Though the policy was in part initiated by the school's Islamic group, Aljawhary said women-only hours are not a case of "minority rights trumping majority preference" and said women of different faiths have showed interest in the hours.
"We live together in one community, it only makes sense for everyone to compromise slightly in order for everyone to live happily," she said. "This matter is simple: Can't we just display basic decency and show tolerance and inclusion for people not a part of the mainstream majority?"
Harvard junior Nick Wells said he believes the women-only hours are inconvenient for the residents that live near the facility and discriminate against men.
"It is unfair to impose a stringent policy that inhibits students from using their own facility in order to further a useless policy that doesn't have any real effect," he said.
"I don't mind that Harvard is trying to give space to women and religious minorities, it's just that it seems that it's not making a real effort," Wells said. "Just one that is impractical and purely symbolic at the cost of people like myself."
Wells lives near the Quad, and said the response to and use of the women-only gym hours so far has been underwhelming.
Harvard freshman Kyle Harasimowicz said women-only gyms have been successful and women-only gym hours fill the same need.
"I guess as long as the time is divvied up fairly, there should be no issue," he said.
Boston University Islamic Society President Mohamed Serageldin said he thinks women-only gym hours would benefit Muslim women at BU.
"Because the FitRec is co-ed, a Muslim woman would most likely be compromising her modesty. He said modesty can be compromised on both the part of the man and the woman when physical action is involved."
BU's Fitness and Recreation Center facilities manager Alex Southall said FitRec's design easily accommodates sectioning off areas for groups.
"It depends on the arrangement with the particular group, so we aren't playing favorites with space, but the FitRec does have the capability to section off for special use," he said.
Obviously, Harvard will gladly reduce fees prorated by the number of hours the gym is off-limits for the haram male students.
/sarc
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
But, when in America, force them to accomodate you.
It wouldn’t shock me if this was a ruse. Unattractive women have complained for years about mixing men and women in the gym. The men pay attention to the hot women and the unattractive women feel left out. So to end their victimhood, they want separate facilities.
I doubt they have very many Muslim women interested in the gym. Think about it.
Never left, the reality is that nothing the left has done creates a situation where people aren't separated into groups. Thats part of the game, its easier to manipulate a group of brain dead multiculturalists than to influence a free man.
What? The Harvard Islamic Society and the Harvard Women’s Center can’t afford to equip their own gym? I find that hard to believe.
At my health club I noticed a head wrapped muslim woman trying to break her taboos, she was like a cat dropped into the pit bull dog pound. They should either go back to their backwards crapholes or be like other fundie religious minorities in this country and stick to themselves.
How do these women attend classes? Do they are rows set aside for them, so they aren’t sitting next to men? How do they interact with male teachers? Questions, questions, questions.
Nope, equal but separate is not equal, its the law! Howard University should know this better than most.
I’m kinda looking forward to the Cambridge Hooters’ Wet Burqa Night.
But they're not butting heads. The Left opposes the religious taboos of the "antithesis" (the "counterrevolutionary" force) but supports the religious taboos of the "thesis" (the "revolutionary" or "oppressed" force). In fact, even the imposition of religious taboos is considered "revolutionary" and "multicultural" provided that it is the taboos of the "thesis" that are being imposed. Meanwhile, the slightest whiff of government sanction of the religious taboos of the "antithesis" is met with secularist mantras.
Finally the Left supports the very things it once opposed, provided they are being advanced by the "thesis" and not the "antithesis." Baptists want a dirty billboard removed? Those fascists aren't going to tell us what to do in this free country! Catholics object to publicly funded blasphemous artwork? Well, this ain't medieval Spain, sunshine. But when "oppressed, revolutionary" moslems demand that a dirty picture be removed or "blasphemous" artwork be defunded all the "secularists" suddenly switch gears and these things must be done or else we're a "chr*stian theocracy." In fact, they'll somehow use secularist ideology as a justification for it!
The big battle, if there ever is one, will be when moslems start demanding that their kids be exempt from being taught evolution. Now that will be interesting!
Ping
Crush islam
Great thought. If I ran the Harvard student newspaper, that would be my headline tomorrow.
They came here to live, in our country. That means they abide by our rules, laws and customs. In other words, assimilate.
“members of the Harvard Islamic Society and the Harvard Women’s Center petitioned the university for a more comfortable environment for women.”
Insanity. Harvard was founded as a Christian organization.
They started in the UK with small things, and have almost reached a tipping point there.
We must keep toxic substances out of our culture or our culture will be destroyed as the UK is close to.
As an American, I’d think that PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS could make up their own rules as they see fit.
Just to be combative:
I don’t see them scheduling classes or exams on Sunday mornings.
Most schools don’t schedule intermural activities or sports on Sunday mornings.
The school probably has a chapel somewhere.
The school is out for all the major Christian holidays.
In my opinion, reasonable accomadation of religion, even those we disagree with, is a rational approach for a public university.
Whether this particular item is reasonable or not remains to be seen.
A fast workstation the Internet and still I cannot keep up with all the PC rules?
Summers’ remarks on women draw fire - The Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/01/17/summers_remarks_on_women_draw_fire/?page=1
CAMBRIDGE — The president of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers, sparked an uproar at an academic conference Friday when he said that innate differences between men and women...
Nancy Hopkins, a biologist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, walked out on Summers’ talk, saying later that if she hadn’t left, ‘’I would’ve either blacked out or thrown up.”
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