The Columbia Association, which operates 23 pools in Howard, will join other communities that have made similar accommodations to create a more welcoming atmosphere for Muslims and other female swimmers.
BALTIMORE SUN When Shehlla Khan’s husband became ill, it fell on her to take their three children to the pool. But for Khan, who is Muslim, the task was difficult. The Columbia resident said she was concerned about people watching her swim in the conservative, cover-all dress required by Islamic dress codes, and thinking: “What’s wrong? Why can’t you take it off?”
So Khan, 39, brought the issue up with members of her Dar Al-Taqwa mosque in Ellicott City. The mosque, along with members of a faith-based county group, People Acting Together in Howard, met with the Columbia Association to create a twice-weekly, women-only swim time, a trial that is scheduled to be announced Tuesday.
New York City’s recreation and parks department offers a women-only swim time at the Metropolitan Recreation Center. Pools around Toronto and other cities have also offered similar options, according to news reports. And at a swimming pool in Seattle, Muslim woman have used brown paper to cover glass windows, providing privacy from the lobby.
Several private universities, including Harvard and George Washington, also have provided female-only swim times, with several hours a week set aside. But occasionally, such programs have run into opponents who suggest they unfairly cater to one group. At George Washington some complained, citing concerns over the program infringing on American liberties.
“It’s a positive thing,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Terrorist Front Group CAIR – Council on American-Islamic Relations. “Not everyone has the same needs. It’s just expanding the level of interaction with the local community and recognizing that people are different. You’re bringing people into your system who would otherwise be uncomfortable.”
Hooper said such programs are beneficial to communities attempting to reach out to an otherwise isolated minority. The reserved times usually are scheduled when facilities might be under-utilized, he said.
Raghid Shourbaji, president of the Howard County Muslim Council, said the need is growing because the county’s Muslim population is growing. He said another indoor pool in Jessup has a similar program, but he hopes the one in Columbia will be more convenient.
His organization, which has been in existence for about 10 years, and the county’s only mosque, Dar Al-Taqwa, are the only Muslim outlets in the county. They serve about 1,800 residents, based on mailing lists.
Safiyah Blake, a Columbia resident who is Muslim, has some practical reasons for using the women-only swim times. But she agreed the pool experience can often drive Islamic women away. “You can see people looking at you,” Blake said. The women-only pool times will “bridge the gap. My sisters and I can jump in.”
She plans to get out her burqini — a bathing suit that covers her arms and legs, and has a hood. The modest, cover-all swimsuit is often worn by Muslim women.
The women-only swim times will be held from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at the swim center. Depending on the success at the indoor pools, Cynthia Marshall of PATH said the group might try to extend the program to outdoor pools, which might take some additional consideration.
Deborah says
You have to put all of this in the context of how racist and embedded in religious discrimination these people are. I live near Dearborn, Michigan, and purchased a membership in a brand-new women’s-only athletic club. I’m an older woman and also felt I’d be more comfortable in a women-only environment. The girls who sold me my membership were Muslim and very pleasant. However, the virtually all-Muslim females who showed up for orientation looked daggers at me. The place never opened, due to “permit issues,” but I always felt they jus found a way to open some other, more quiet way, elsewhere, to the exclusion of non-Muslim females. I’ll wager that these pools which allow all-female swim times will soon come under various complaints which have the result of excluding non-Muslim females. Islam does not abide by inclusion of any kind.
BareNakedIslam says
Count on Muslims to make trouble wherever they go.
andrewblackadder says
Mr Hooper, the moron, wants apartheid in every way and yet says this is for community gathering and understanding as we are all together, yet apart…
The silence of Western feminists and the #METOO gals is deafening to my ears.
I thought they were all about equality and the right to go topless or even nude, which I am 100% in favor of, and I wish women in the USA would join these head to toe covered ”women” and jump into the Pool wearing the smallest Bikini they can find and then take, at least, the top off.
Blue Thomas says
Is there an update about this story? It was posted in 2011 and with the incident in England I would like to know. Couldn’t find anything online.
BareNakedIslam says
No, there isn’t.
Grizz says
Please. Modesty is in the mind of the culture. Most American men enjoy the beauty of women. Our (USA) culture looks at how other cultures dress and find it quite odd. Not too long ago we only saw that on TV. Most western cultures are being overtaken by Middle East, and any american wanting to hold onto what is normal to us is tagged an islamaphobe, bigot, racist or any number of ‘culturally progressive’ terms. Enough. Want to swim at a community pool, then put up with the rules as they pertain to the country in which that pool is located. These same women who claim ‘modesty’ also don’t mind a good beating once in awhile from their sharia compliant ‘men’. I guess if I had a wife that looked like most Arab women, I might want here covered from head to toe also. At least Arabs are not killed in this country for trying to live their culture. So far
Monica says
this is not a case of discrimination at all…that’s ridiculous and shows complete ignorance. This is just like the case of having a woman’s and men’s restroom, and women’s and men’s gym. If there are a group of men who feel they cannot benefit the use of the co-ed swimming pool for the reason of modesty in front of women (no matter their religion) then they also deserve some male-only swim time allotted to them.
Seeing women dressed in fully covered swim suits these days may seem strange to some people, ok, most people. When beach swimming became popular in the 1820’s women wore “swim dresses” and bonnets, and would swim amongst other women. (btw, this was in the USA, and they weren’t muslims) They were modest and God concious, and protected themselves from shame, and gossip. As time passed, did God lower His standard on “shame and modesty”? No, of course not! People did. As people saw others becoming less modest, they joined in on it. public display of sexuality has been growing like mold. It was because of Good ‘ol peer pressure. Nowadays we tell our children not to be sucummed by peer pressure, but when their daughters go out of the house half naked, they say…”Can you believe it, that’s what ALL the kids are wearing these days! – bye kids, have fun!” Now who are the strange one’s? The ones who have persevered through the peer pressure, preserving their modesty, or the ones who have succumbed to the peer pressure by baring their bodies and completely forgetting about the day that God will judge? As I remember this is a nation built on a belief in God.
I have a lot of respect for these women who behave with modesty. I’ll bet their fathers are proud of them. Where are the fathers who LIKE to see their daughters showing their bodies to strange men? They’re everywhere! Fathers don’t care! (I have a son in high school) I’ve seen the way their daughters are dressed. They obviously don’t mind their daughters dressed to attract boys’ hormones. How is it that the parents let their daughters dress the way they do? This goes for the rich, the poor, all nationalities and all religions. People say they believe in God – but where is their shame! They don’t actually believe they’ll be judged I guess. I’m pretty sure if public nudity was legal, that too would become a popular trend. There’s obviously no limit to what is acceptable…”they’re all doing it these days!” And the modest women are the strange ones. Go figure! May god help us all!
barenakedislam says
Monica, you are ignorant about Islam. You are not allowed to comment here again until you look at the Categories in the sidebar here called “WOMEN” and “CHILDREN”
Deborah says
I am disappointed in Monica being told she could not comment any more–she did not target any specific person or say ugly things about anybody. And I do agree with her that one of America’s strengths was its aversion to peer pressure, which is a control factor in so many other countries. Even “western” countries. I visited a guy in Switzerland (perhaps the world’s oldest democracy) and was criticized for reading a book on the balcony of his apartment on a balmy afternoon. When I asked a lady I knew from the area, she said I should have been cleaning. I asked her, “What if the apartment is clean?” She replied, “Well, you clean it again!” She and her husband and family later moved to the United States and one the reasons was freedom–from peer pressure!
Jack Rider says
Want to know how to exert peer pressure in an Islamic society: you kill your own daughter for going on a date with a non-muslim man; you stone a woman for being raped by a man and young hang gay couple for holding hands in public. Really is that your complaint about America and the West, that’s there is just too much peer pressure? That it is the Western mind that is intolerant and not accommodating. You sound very ignorant, foolish and uninformed.
Jack Rider says
Monica you’re an obvious insidious plant trying to penetrate this blog. It’s not about modesty. It’s about exerting control through forced accommodation with the view of replacing the underlying host culture into which the muslims have come. If you’re not a plant you’re a naive useful idiot.