Beaches for Muslim Women Planned in Italy [View All]

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/08/04/D8J9N7UG0.html

Hotels at an Italian seaside resort are eager to act on the town's decision to authorize the creation of all-female beach sections for Muslim women, with at least one hotel owner saying Friday that plans are already under way to open the first of such secluded areas next month.

The city council of Riccione, a popular resort on Italy's Adriatic coast about 90 miles east of Florence, has said it is prepared to authorize requests to set up partitions on parts of the shoreline to satisfy requests from the town's growing numbers of Arab and Muslim tourists.

"They can have anything they want, but they can't go to the beach, at least not without all those heavy clothes," Attilio Cenni, owner of the upscale Grand Hotel des Bains, said of his female Muslim guests.

Cenni said he plans to open the first secluded section starting in September on a stretch of shoreline of about 1,000 square meters (10,000 square feet) and to expand further next season across the more isolated beaches on Riccione's outskirts.

And in U.S.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060421/NEWS05/604210355/1007/NEWS05

Muslim women fight to exercise away from men

When Arrwa Mogalli agreed to plunk down $1,465 for a lifetime membership with the Fitness USA chain of gyms, she did so after being promised that its Lincoln Park facility would be open only to women on certain days.

As a devout Muslim, Mogalli firmly believes her religion frowns on her working out where she could see men -- and men could see her -- moving and dressed in a manner that might seem immodest.

So when the Lincoln Park gym decided this month to open up part of the center to both sexes every day, the 28-year-old Dearborn resident and other area Muslims felt cheated. So far, about 200 Muslim women with Fitness USA memberships have signed a petition asking the chain to return to gender-specific days for the entire gym or to put up a divider so men and women can't see each other while working out.

Fitness USA officials met with one of the women and a Muslim advocate this week at their corporate office in West Bloomfield and said they are working on a response to the women's concerns. But they also noted that their written contracts say nothing about gender.

http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1739

Muslim Girl Basketball Players Seek Way To Be More Competitive(Illinois)

<snip> Originally published in Chicago Tribune.

But the girls can't accept that they have only been allowed to compete against girls' basketball teams from other Muslims schools. There are only four in the Chicago area, they complain, and their competition isn't exactly tough.

Since last year, they've been beseeching coach Farida Abusafa, a 26-year-old English teacher who also coaches sports, to ask public schools and non-Muslim private schools if their girls teams would be willing to compete against girls from the Universal School.

The problem is that the schools would have to agree to bar men and boys above the age of puberty from watching the games.

"It's not like it's a sin to play a public school," Abusafa said. "The problem is the males coming to the game."

The dilemma underscores the balancing act many Muslims perform as they toggle between American and Middle Eastern culture. Many of these young girls straddle the divide with ease, yapping on their cellphones at the mall one minute, observing the school's strict gender segregation the next. But the girls are also mindful of the challenges they face.

This just rubs me the wrong way. IMHO if you come to the West - deal with it, don't ask us to accomodate you in public facilities or land. And btw I'm female and I somehow finds this discriminating.