Women-only hours
Harvard university recently began to implement women-only hours in one of its gyms:
In a test of Harvard’s famed open-mindedness, the university has banned men from one of its gyms for a few hours a week to accommodate Muslim women who say it offends their sense of modesty to exercise in front of the opposite sex. [link]
Mind you, I’m all for respecting and providing for special needs of minorities but not of policies that are based on exclusion rather than inclusion. Assimilation of minorities into the mainstream are based in inclusionary policies (affirmative action, school integration) […]
This Harvard policy does not serve the inclusionary purposes because it defers to the regressive gender separation policies propagated by certain cultures.
As a general rule of thumb, one could say that as long as the decision does not infringe on the rights of others, it is a reasonable. […] However, in this case, the gym has been declared off limits for male students. That’s discrimination. Plain and simple. It is idiotic to claim that it is only for a limited number of hours every week.[…] It might not actually cause anyone inconvenience but once the wrong precedent has been established, it inevitably leads to future conflicts.
[…] Perhaps, the biggest burden of this mishap has been borne by women who have suffered grievously […]. Therefore, while there is nothing wrong in providing space for Muslims to pray, I am not sure separate gym hours for women is the right approach to adopt.
Second, the decision is specially disappointing because it comes from a famed University. […] Harvard, by encouraging discrimination in the name of respecting cultural sensibilities has made an extremely poor decision.
Finally, Muslims would no doubt point that the issue has gained such prominence their religion i involved. I won’t disagree with that statement and it is a legitimate grievance. Nevertheless, it would bear reflection on their part too why are they being increasingly in conflict with secular societies. (And I don’t mean the Osama Bin Laden variety.) And what can be done to address that.
“Family Hours”
In several gyms and swimming pools in India, there are female-only or family hours. In fact, when I passed info about IIT swimming pool to P, she asked me to find out if there were any family hours. In a society like India, it is just not comfortable for a woman, irrespective of her religious convictions, to go swimming with hundreds of eyes glued to the relatively exposed body. While we would have no qualms about going swimming in US or in the campus, its still a good idea to insist on family hours in India.
Update: Grammar correction.
Wonder if the two linked above approve of family hours. 
Niket, I think you answer your own question. I tried to keep my opposition away from blaming Islam since the issue is more cultural than religious as you point out. You say:
So in a society like America, that wouldn’t be so much of a issue, would it? That is, hundreds of eye leeching at a woman in workout clothes. Perhaps it is in the mind of the woman who has had that experience in a different society where indeed her discomfort was probably justified. Trying to fit your new environments to your pre-existing perceptions instead of trying at least adapt to your current environment.
Of course, there cannot be a black-white situation and there will be some seeking of a middle ground. After all, we do see immigrants e.g. desis do things that they wouldn’t imagine doing in India, right? For e.g. women wearing jeans (one small example). I just found Harvard’s policy a wee bit too appeasing and trying to bend backwards to let Muslim women continue to live in an environment they have been brought up in although it doesn’t fit in with America’s culture of openness and inclusion.