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]
Patrix is unimpressed:
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.
Rohit chimes in:
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. 
Tags: General by Niket
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