I used to exercise at a women only gym. A woman started coming, leaving her two little boys in the daycare. In spite of there only being women, she still wore long pants, long sleeves and a scarf while she did the step aerobics but she was always happy. I figured it was her only outlet. She walked to and from, pushing the boys in a stroller and even in hot weather, wearing a long coat and scarf.
Then one day her husband showed up in the lobby. You could hear him ranting away but they wouldn’t let him back because no men were allowed. But he could hear the pop music we danced to and he must not have approved because she never came back. Sad. So I’m guessing that a lot of people, muslim or not, would be okay with times when only one gender was there but what about the bump music?
I would assume that there would also be some Christian denominations that would be happy to have a “women-only” time. It seems to me that this is a business decision to try to meet the needs of clients, not just catering to a specific religion.
I think sometimes we get so hyper vigilant that we fail to see the wider context in what could be a common sense decision.
Even in the context of catering to Muslims, you bring up a good point in the potential for providing an outlet for people who are repressed.