Should Harvard Have Women Only gyms?

A report from the Harvard University,

In a test of Harvard’s famed open-mindedness, the university has banned men from one of its gyms for a few hours a week to accommodate Muslim women who say it offends their sense of modesty to exercise in front of the opposite sex. [link]

Is this a fair decision? There are couple of important theme to consider here. First, Harvard and America are increasingly multi-cultural societies; reasonable accommodations should be made taking into account cultural/religious differences. Second, as the world’s best known university, Harvard sets the standards: has an appropriate message been given? Third, has the issue been highlighted only because Muslims are involved?

Okay, let’s deal with them one by one. Admittedly, it is hard to define reasonable accommodation. As a general rule of thumb, one could say that as long as the decision does not infringe on the rights of others, it is a reasonable. For example, a lot of people (including me ) find Burqa terrible but it is not our business to tell people what to wear just because it offends our aesthetic or moral sense. However, in this case, the gym has been declared off limits for male students. That’s discrimination. Plain and simple. It is idiotic to claim that it is only for a limited number of hours every week. The question here is of principle and not of convenience. Would it okay to ban women from 15 minutes on subway cars or should taxis be declared off limits for them for one hour in a week? It might not actually cause anyone inconvenience but once the wrong precedent has been established, it inevitably leads to future conflicts.

Note, I am not making a utilitarian argument here. If a group of Muslims got together and decided to fund a separate Muslim only gym, that would still be wrong, as wrong as a Christian only class room or Hindu only play ground. It also raises an extremely important issue: how should such conflicts be mediated in a multi-cultural and democratic society? Clearly, no one has the right to tell people to give up their cultural anchors merely so they may be better assimilated in the society. Nevertheless, a society which is not prepared to take fair but hard decisions in the name of political correctness or due to its inability to handle the resultant conflict is merely postponing the flashpoint. The Muslim problem in Britain is a classic example where the state had largely left Muslims alone in their ghettos leading to marginalization and subsequent radicalization of a vociferous minority.

Perhaps, the biggest burden of this mishap has been borne by women who have suffered grievously (as they have in many Sikh families) because the British have looked the other way at practices like honor killing especially in cases outside the territorial jurisdiction of Britain. I am definitely not equating clothes with honor killing–however, clothing requirements are a symbol of subjugation where women are treated as commodities to be protected from the roving eyes of ”bad men”. While the state/institutions cannot tell people what to wear, they are certainly under no obligations to go out of the way to accommodate those which fail to meet the test of a modern, just and equitable society. Therefore, while there is nothing wrong in providing space for Muslims to pray, I am not sure separate gym hours for women is the right approach to adopt. No doubt, it’s a moral judgment but if the greatest university in the world cannot exercise it, then it is simply a case of social advancement thwarted by pusillanimity.

Second, the decision is specially disappointing because it comes from a famed University. At their most basic level, university–academia–should be place for discussion; dispute; and debate. Universities are not to be guided by the concerns of the politicians; as thought leaders they should be prepared to show the way. Harvard, by encouraging discrimination in the name of respecting cultural sensibilities has made an extremely poor decision.

Finally, Muslims would no doubt point that the issue has gained such prominence their religion is involved. I won’t disagree with that statement and it is a legitimate grievance. Nevertheless, it would bear reflection on their part too why are they being increasingly in conflict with secular societies. (And I don’t mean the Osama Bin Laden variety.) And what can be done to address that. One of the important areas of reforms which needs urgent attention is the place of women in Muslim societies. Muslims can shout from the rooftops that Quran gave women the most rights, but 1400 years from that day the state of majority of Muslim women is extremely poor. After all, this entire drama in Harvard would not have taken place if not for the inability of the Muslim society to align the demands of the 21st century to a medieval order.

The Muslim world needs to learn that from the West.