Aljawhary said that she does not believe that the women-only gym hours discriminate against men.
"These hours are necessary because there is a segment of the Harvard female population that is not found in gyms not because they don't want to work out, but because for them working out in a co-ed gym is uncomfortable, awkward or problematic in some way," she said.
They will try to spin this as being for women, but it's really not. It's for Muslim women. Because there are plenty of men who don't go to the gym because they feel uncomfortable or awkward. Nobody is making a special "dorky, overweight man" time slot for the Quad.
Don't want to work out around guys? Go to Curves. Feel that it somehow isn't modest to work out around men? Step out of the dark ages. And, I think the modesty is somewhat BS anyways. Muslim women or not, 80%+ are probably exercising to "look good", which isn't modest on it's own. They other 20% are probably doing it for strictly health reasons.
I don't think it'd be a big deal if they had a special section for a few hours a week, but closing it off to another gender is a bit much.
Posted by Kevin at February 28, 2008 09:13 AM