In Lincoln Park Michigan, 200 Muslim women with memberships at Fitness USA are demanding seperate workout times for men and women. They have signed a petition asking the gyms to honor what they say was a promise made to them. The women are asking that the chain restore single-sex exercise days or at least put a divider up so men and women can’t see each other while exercising.
"In Islam, there are codes of modesty for both genders," said Ammerah Saidi, 23, of Dearborn. "When you’re working out, you’re not dressed modestly, and you’re bending in provocative ways, so you can’t be working out with the opposite gender."
It’s difficult to tackle this without sounding like a gun-toting redneck American, but I’ll give it a shot. Ammerah, this isn’t Islam, or an Islamic country. This is a country that has people from every faith, country, and background. Somehow we all get along in a nice relatively peaceful manner. We have churches of every faith and restaurants representing every culture. If you wanna practice your particular faith you go to that church. If you want to eat your particular food, you go to a restaurant that caters to it. If a Catholic wants to pray, he doesn’t go to a mosque, nor does he demand that the mosque have Catholic services on certain days of the week and vice versa. I don’t go to an Indian restaurant looking for Italian cuisine.
Now I have heard of workout facilities that cater to seperation of sexes, but like places of worship, they are specific to that faith. There’s Jewish Community Center in my town, that provides days for women to workout alone. While I feel it’s rather stupid, I appreciate the fact that they provide that service and don’t demand it of a publicly owned business that services the general publlic.
Now if these Muslim women were promised this, then sure they have a case. But in a broader sense of the matter, what we have is a religion trying to impose their beliefs on a company with no denomination. I see this matter as a business opportunity for the Muslim community. As with the Jewish community here, the Muslims need to establish a place of their own to suit their specific needs without impacting everyone else in their community.
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April 23rd, 2006 at 9:16 am
There are businesses out there that can cater to just about anyone’s needs. As for commercial gyms, “Curves” is one example of a “women only” establishment that can give women wishing to jog on a treadmill outside the leering eyes of men a place to do so. It would save alot of time and court costs if people made the effort to see if a gym had the features they required before signing a contract. I don’t sue because my local Bally’s lacks a pool and steam room.
April 23rd, 2006 at 9:26 am
i grew up close to lincoln park mi - and the reason i never signed up for a membership at that fitness usa was *because* they had separate mens/womens days. but - i know that there were people who thought that was a feature.
if fitness usa has changed it’s policy - and the muslim people are upset about it, fitness usa should at least refund their membership dues or let them out of the contract. the business has a right to change it’s policy, and the customers have a right to complain or drop their membership.
April 23rd, 2006 at 12:56 pm
harry potter is awesome!
April 23rd, 2006 at 7:41 pm
Few people understand though that at that particular area of Michigan houses the largest population of Muslims in the United States, so it is not that uncommon for that kind of request to be made.
April 23rd, 2006 at 8:10 pm
Indeed Megg. However, usually when there is such a large population of any ethnic group, development specific to that community usually follows. I just find it odd that there is not a workout facility that caters to this like the one I spoke of in my post.
April 23rd, 2006 at 11:17 pm
why dont they just make a room for women, they’ll probably end up making more profit than they spend doing it considering it will be used so much. why are compromises not being tried instead of automatically ostracising a community. a seperate room will benefit the muslims and also create more income for the gym. on the contrary, it is rather silly for the muslim women not to gather funds to build their own gym, which is yes more logical. yet if they were promised, the gym should honour the promise.
April 24th, 2006 at 6:30 am
“The gym in this Detroit suburb opened a new part of the center this month to both sexes every day.”
sounds like they open up a new part which dosen’t follow the usual set days for different genders. Just to echo what others have said. If they don’t like goto a gym which caters for your needs.
April 27th, 2006 at 9:50 am
“It’s difficult to tackle this without sounding like a gun-toting redneck American”
It’s a sad state of affairs when one can not make his views known on issues such as this for fear of being called intolerant or whatnot. I see the same in my country.
Good article.
May 1st, 2006 at 2:47 am
Someone needs to find a lesbian for this gym, to watch them all “bending in provocative ways” and not being modestly dressed…or is it only men because we have penises that attack hot sweaty middle aged women running on treadmills? As a sidenote…what do these women need to work out for? Do they plan on showing off their toned bodies to men or something? Or do they think they can actually defend themselves against men, who are obviously superior based on a vague reading of their bible? And furthermore, why are they dressing immodestly at all? Can’t they wear Burkhas while pumping iron?
May 12th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
Harry Potter was actually based off my cousin, Gerald. yeah we were out back one time raking leaves, and he was like, my dads arms are hairy. and my next door neighbor J.K. Rowling, she said Harry? Harry who? and I said no you dumb bitch he was talking about his dad’s hairy ass arms, and she went, “Harry Potter? What a cool name!” Then she moved to england, put a front of an accent, and sported some books like she was all up ons them c-notes.
May 12th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Harry Potter was actually based off my cousin, Gerald. yeah we were out back one time raking leaves, and he was like, my dads arms are hairy. and my next door neighbor J.K. Rowling, she said Harry? Harry who? and I said no you dumb bitch he was talking about his dad’s hairy ass arms, and she went, “Harry Potter? What a cool name!” Then she moved to england, put up a front of an accent, and sported some books like she was all up ons them c-notes.
May 12th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
shit. double post. thats rank!
October 15th, 2006 at 9:42 pm
At the end of the day peoplle who have a problem understanding that we are all entitled to be different are racist and need to check themselves i bet they wouldnt have the nerve to admitt it to anyone they meet because it is a shamefull way to be. Muslim women want to work out to keep fit, look great for thie partner and themselves. How small minded have you all become to think to only put effort into your health and appearance to attract others. We are not that brainwashed by this sad and oversexed world thankfully and feel sorry that you dont think looking good for yourself first is not important. As for the veil if you dont like it dont wear it stupid and mind your own.
October 15th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
There is one thing that I disagree with in the article…
“If a Catholic wants to pray, he doesn’t go to a mosque, nor does he demand that the mosque have Catholic services on certain days of the week and vice versa. I don’t go to an Indian restaurant looking for Italian cuisine.”
This is a red herring. A Catholic doesn’t go into a mosque to pray, but they do expect that nobody will ask them to go against their beliefs when they go to stores. (In certain places, there are even laws against shopping on Sunday that come from this…) If the islamic people want to work out in seperated areas or on seperate days, and it was promised to them, then they should.
That being said, if it wasn’t, then they should not force their beliefs on others. If I’m a nudist, I’d never go into the gym naked. I may think clothes are abhorrant, and sweaty clothes even worse, but I wouldn’t subject everyone else to my beliefs. Now, if I was told in the recruitment speech “Yeah, we have nudist facilities”, well, at the least I’d expect them to give me my money back. At best, I’d expect them to give us nudists a separate area to work out.
I’d be willing to bet, from my experience with the ‘workout facilities’ that these women asked about seperate workout dates or facilities for women and men and we told ‘oh, yeah, we do that’, when in fact all that is seperated is the washrooms. Every gym I’ve ever been a part of has pulled out any lie they could to get you to join… and these women are calling them on it.
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December 5th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
In many Gyms there are classes only for women.
Have respect for other cultures. Secular woman like my self also prefer the these classes.
December 5th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
O, OK, I’ll respect the culture that cuts off the heads of non-muslims for being non-muslims. I’ll respect the culture that insists that women go veiled so that men can resist raping them. I’ll respect the culture that slices up the genitals of young girls with old razor blades and broken glass. I’ll respect the culture that endorses child marriage. I’ll respect the culture that disrespeacts ALL other cultures. Sure I will. Right. Bank on it.
Frankly you multiculturalists and equivalency freaks are getting very tiresome.