Harvard University Cultural Differences Debate
The Harvard denouncements of two Muslim religion practices — whether the call to prayer should sound out across campus and whether the university should grant women separate gym hours — have resulted in heated discussion and debate at the university.
The debates and heated discussions started in February, when the Harvard undergraduate college prevented Muslim women from using its three largest gyms separately.
The New York Times reports that the focus of all on-campus discussions is whether Harvard is doing right restricting the basic necessary conditions for the Muslim religious practices.
The new system has been criticized for not attracting enough women to warrant separate hours, and several students said perhaps only 15 people use the center during peak periods at night, despite the fact that it offered its own locker rooms, squash and basketball courts, weights and aerobic machines.
The International Herald Tribune quotes Rauda Tellawi, a senior at Harvard University, stating that the idea to set separate hours for Muslim women to use the university gyms has been supported by some non-Muslim women too.
Tellawi did not consider it discriminatory to set aside some hours at the gym for women. Instead, she viewed it as a healthy accommodation. She noted that students who follow kosher eating rules have a separate area in her dining hall and said that some many non-Muslim women supported the separate gym hours. The new system has been criticized for not attracting enough women to warrant separate hours, and several students said perhaps only 15 people use the center during peak periods at night, despite the fact that it offered its own locker rooms, squash and basketball courts, weights and aerobic machines.
“Even if you have loose clothing on, they are going to see things that we are not supposed to let them see. Islam doesn’t encourage you to physically lie down in front of men,” Tellawi said.
Photo: Rory Finneren
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