Female-only gym time: Tolerance or sexism?
Harvard's move to aid female Muslims religiously opposed to exercise with men has sparked a stir.
BOSTON - Harvard University has banned men from one of its gyms for a few hours a week, a move to accommodate Muslim women who, for religious and cultural reasons, cannot exercise comfortably in their presence.
The policy already is unpopular with many on campus, including some women who consider it sexist.
"I think that it's incorrect in a college setting to institute a policy in which half of the campus gets wronged or denied a resource that's supposed to be for everyone," said Lucy Caldwell, a student who also wrote a column in the Harvard Crimson newspaper that criticized the new hours.
Ola Aljawhary, a Muslim student who works out elsewhere on campus and is not one of the women who requested the change, rejected that argument. "The majority should be willing to compromise," she said. "I think that's just basic courtesy. We must show tolerance and respect for all others."
The trial policy went into effect Feb. 4, about a month after a group of six Muslim women, with the support of the Harvard College Women's Center, had asked the university for the special hours, spokesman Robert Mitchell said.
"We get special requests from religious groups all the time and we try to honor them whenever possible," he said, noting that the school had designated spaces for Muslim and Hindu students to pray.
No men are allowed in the gym between 3 and 5 p.m. Mondays, and between 8 and 10 a.m Tuesdays and Thursdays. Even the staff during those times is all female.
The special hours allow the Muslim women, who adhere to traditional dress codes by covering their hair and most of their skin while in public, to dress more appropriately for exercising, said Susan Marine, director of the women's center. "It's a pretty big breach of their moral and religious code for a man to see them with their hair uncovered," she said, "and it's just not possible for them to be in a mixed environment."
When student Kareem Shuman showed up to work out at the gym Monday, he was turned away but didn't mind. "Knowing it was requested by women of my faith, it's very understandable to me," said Shuman, 21, who said he would come back later for his workout.
Other men find the new hours inconvenient. Nick Wells, a junior who wrote an opinion piece in the Crimson criticizing the policy, suggested setting aside one room for women.
"It's not that I am opposed to the idea of helping people in religious groups or women in general," Wells said, "but I just think Harvard is not being fair to people like me who live [near the gym]."
The policy applies only to one gym, a facility mainly used for intramurals. Because of its location at the edge of campus, it is the university's least-used gym, Mitchell said.
The women-only hours are of minimal inconvenience because they are just six out of the 70 hours a week the gym is open, Marine said.
The policy will be reviewed at the end of the semester, Mitchell said.
Kent Blumenthal, executive director of the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association, which has 660 member colleges and universities nationwide, said he did not know of any other institution with a similar policy. "It seems in some ways contrary to the purpose of campus recreational programs, which is all about access," he said.
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Harvard's policy was no different from those of commercial gyms that catered partly or even exclusively to women.