It is interesting to note that Muslims have recently taken a keen interest in swimming. For over a thousand years, Muslim women have found it difficult to go swimming in their heavy hijabs. Suddenly, fashionable Islamic swimwear has appeared. Since many Muslim women do not have enough money for the new burqinis, Muslims have been insisting on Muslim-women only swimming facilities called Muslim Sister Swim (2) and in London they already have pool sessions for Muslim men only (3). If Muslims want to swim by themselves they should get Saudi Arabia to build swimming pools just for themselves.

Stuff.co.nz,
Separate pools for Muslim women

The majority of readers who sent us feedback said they are against the idea of special swimming pools being built so that Muslim women can exercise in private.

Photo Credit: World of Private Islands

The New Editor,
Iran to Create Women-Only Island

Iran is seeking to create a paradise for female tourists by turning an island on a northwestern lake into male-free zone, the press reported on Wednesday.

All public transport, restaurants and facilities on the island -- on the gigantic Oroumiyeh lake close to the Turkish border -- will be staffed only by women, officials said.
...
The initiative has even been cleared by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's provincial representative, who declared that a women-only island is not against Islamic sharia law, the official said.

ENDNOTES

(1):

Star Tribune, 22 Nov 2006, Uproar follows imams' detention

The removal of six Muslim clerics from a US Airways flight from the Twin Cities set off a nationwide uproar, and the Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties said it will review the incident.

(2):

Sound Politics, Shari'a Swimtime

Last month there was an article in the Seattle Times on a program where city public swimming pools have regularly scheduled hours for the exclusive use of Muslims:

...

I made some calls and learned that the program, called "Muslim Sister Swim", is treated by the city's Meadowbrook Pool as any other private rental, which would be exempt from the city non-discrimination policy. However, the outfit that organizes and pays for the Muslim Sister Swim is the North Seattle Family Center, a unit of the Children's Home Society, a non-profit that gets most of its money from various government sources. As such, it should strictly comply with non-discrimination guidelines. Nevertheless, the Muslim Sister Swim is open exclusively to Muslims, no infidel women need apply. I asked a representative of the North Seattle Family Center to explain this, and she told me that it was to respect these immigrant women's culture.

But if there's ever a reason for taxpayer dollars to be used to support an immigrant's culture, it should be to support them in learning to shed whatever aspects of their culture are incompatible with American culture. The last thing we need to teach immigrants is to expect publicly-subsidized religious apartheid.

(3):

The Sun, 13 Dec 2006, 'Muslim only' pool outrage

A COUNCIL has sparked fury by virtually shutting a swimming pool on Sunday afternoons for “Muslim-only” sessions.

All women are banned — and non-Muslim men may swim IF they follow the strict Islamic dress code of swim shorts that hide the navel and extend below the knee.

Croydon Council in South London runs the sessions at Thornton Heath leisure centre between 4.45pm and 6.45pm.

Similar slots are laid on for Muslim women outside opening hours, where bathers must be covered from the neck down to the ankle.

Locals who flock to the area’s only major leisure centre each week are furious.