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2 Replies Last post: Mar 11, 2008 11:44 AM by caymindiver  
Click to view Trish18's profile Active.com Staff 397 posts since
Jun 5, 2007
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Mar 5, 2008 1:20 PM

Harvard Sets Women-Only Hours for Gym

A story from Fox News reports that in response to a request by female Muslim students, Harvard University has created women-only workout hours at one of its campus gyms.

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in Washington D.C., said modesty may prevent some Muslim women from exercising in a co-ed environment. "If the women are dressed in a manner that makes it more comfortable to exercise, they may not feel it's appropriate for them to be viewed by men in that particular attire," he said.

But the change has angered students like Nicholas Wells, a junior who called the change a "lose-lose" situation in an opinion article he wrote for the Harvard Crimson newspaper. "It is an unreasonable policy that is unjust to men and useless to women," he wrote.

Do you think Harvard made a fair choice?
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Click to view Allmine69's profile Rookie 1 posts since
Oct 14, 2007
1. Mar 7, 2008 6:27 PM in response to: Trish18
Re: Harvard Sets Women-Only Hours for Gym
MIT just opened up two hours a week for single gender swim in response to some student groups on campus that were unable to use our regular facilities because of the co-ed factor. We have 1 hour on Tuesday nights for women and 1 hour on Thursday nights for men. We just started the process so over the next few months it should be interesting to see how it unfolds and what becomes of it.
Click to view caymindiver's profile Rookie 2 posts since
Mar 6, 2008
2. Mar 11, 2008 11:44 AM in response to: Trish18
Re: Harvard Sets Women-Only Hours for Gym
I think my question would be did Harvard open the women only swim for "women" or religious reasons? I think it was quoted in the article as stating that muslim women had requested this. I see several issues with this that do not relate to religion. To be fair, will they open a swim session for "men only"? And is this women's only session a rotating time frame (such as mornings one week, afternoons the next and evenings the following) or are there set times that will be maintained as permanent?