Beaches for Muslim Women Planned in Italy

[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.

[porphyrian]

1. I don't mind them asking, as long as they realize they aren't...

...automatically entitled to it. Some businesses will accommodate them, some won't, and their rights don't trump the rights of others in public areas.

[ContraBass Black]

2. The first two do not match the third.

[fasttense]

3. Separate but equal never works.

Look at the toilet situation at most large public events. Women always have to wait in line because they don't put in enough sit down stalls. Women's education was always second class when it was separated out from men's classes on a routine basis. It certainly didn't work for Blacks before civil rights. It's just setting the stage to give women second class facilities. Sometimes separation works on a small scale with rich clientele but overall as a nationwide policy, separate but equal is an utter failure.

[truebrit71]

4. That third one has me at a loss....If my daughter's team played them...

...I (as a male) wouldn't be able to go and watch her play because of THEIR belief system?

I don't think so.

Methinks they will have a VERY tough time finding new opponents....

[sgxnk]

5. this is stupid policy imo

imo

if these were privately owned beaches (Which apparently, they are not since it is the city council making the thing go) that would be one thing

a private beach can have whatever dress code it wants imo.

but since it is apparently, a public beach, this is just plain stupid

fwiw, the city of seattle does a similar thing with special swimming hours for muslim women, where they cover the windows, allow women only clothed swimming etc. to accomodate them

again, imo this is wrong. and it would be just as wrong if jewish or christian women with special clothing requirements requested it

if you can't go along with the community standard for the beaches in your area (whether that be clothing or nude beaches or whatever),---- tough

making special beaches for muslim (or ANY religions) preferences imo is a bad policy for a public agency

[Generic Other]

6. So is it the women or their husbands who wish to be segregated?

Seems as if the women would only be concerned about it if their husbands and fathers were being pricks.

I can hear the conversation:

male: Mixing of the sexes is forbidden. You may not exercise in this gym. You must wear a burkha if you do.

female: Then we must segregate the gym, so I can continue to have this one moment of freedom.

male: Yes. Otherwise you stay home. The Koran says "No co-ed."

Yeah right.

I agree with you. If Muslim women can't stand the freedom western women fought for and won for themselves through centuries of struggle, they should put on their prison garb and go back where women are less evolved. And I don't care if it makes me sound condemning. This shit is so backward.

[treestar]

7. They just need to build their own gym

There are women only gyms out there already.

There are plenty of nonMuslim women who might be interested, too.

I for one could care less who sees me exercise, but if people are that self-conscious, more power to them if they can invest in a gym that has that as a selling point.