Green swimming...

[Gob]

The Greens’ Meredith Hunter is kicking off a push for women’s only swimming opportunities in the ACT:

“Providing women’s only swimming would increase the availability of swimming to a number of women and children in our community, both for safety, and for fun.

“Some women and families currently do not use our public pools due to religious reasons, accessibility concerns, or for body image reasons.

“I have raised women’s only swimming with the Chief Minister in recent weeks, and I hope her planned meetings with community advocates will progress this issue.

“There have been some women’s only swimming programs run by community organizations or small community groups on a season by season basis, which rely on the availability of private pools such as the pool at Canberra Girls Grammar or the ACU.

“With work yet to begin on the new Gungahlin Leisure Centre, the Government has a golden opportunity, for instance, to incorporate screening into the design so that a separated pool area can be available for women only sessions.

“Such ad hoc arrangements can be difficult to manage, especially due to the rising costs of insurance, which many small community organisations are not able to meet.

[Guinevere]

Interesting. There is so little pool time generally around here, that I think it would go over like a lead balloon in the US.

I thought everyone in Oz had fins already anyway....

[Gob]

RATEPAYERS could be stung up to $45,000 to install curtains at a public pool so Muslim women can have privacy during a female-only exercise classes.

The City of Monash has won an exemption from equal opportunity laws to run the sessions outside normal opening hours.

The council says the privacy screen is needed for "cultural reasons".

It follows moves by other councils to introduce women-only sessions for the Muslim community, such as Greater Dandenong asking a tribunal to approve a ban on uncovered shoulders and thighs for those attending a family event at a pool.


http://www.heraldsun.com.au/.../victori ... 6004006696

A council has sparked a row after it shut a swimming pool to hold Muslim-only sessions on a Sunday afternoon.

The swimming sessions - which are for men only - are held for two hours every week at a leisure centre in London. Non-Muslims may swim during this time but only if they follow the strict dress code of swimming shorts that hide the navel and extend below the knee. Women are completely banned from attending but have their own special swimming sessions outside opening hours.

During their sessions bathers must be covered from head to foot with their swimming costume covering their body from the neck down to the ankle.

Last night furious members vowed they would hand in their membership at Thornley Heath leisure centre in Croydon, London. Daniel Foley, 44, said: "I turned up and saw a sign saying it was closing early for Muslim afternoon - I couldn't believe it." Alex Craig, 34, said: "I think it is preposterous that a council should be encouraging this type of segregation over municipal facilities. "It seems the issue here is over modesty. Surely if Muslims want to swim then they should just turn up with their modest swimwear at the same time as everyone else. "To make a special provision for them is just ridiculous and strikes me as imposing an 'Us and them' mentality which is wrong."

The leisure centre is extremely popular locally as it is the only swimming pool offering cheap sessions for miles around.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1m26hDI1T

[Scooter]

Ridiculous. It could be justifiable to allocate certain times to sex-segregated sessions, if they are provided on an equal basis, but to dictate how someone is required to dress, beyond what would normally be considered acceptable, is outrageous. Indeed, one of the reasons some pools provide sex-segregated sessions is to allow people to swim completely naked if they wished.

[Gob]

Oh god, you'll get Andrew going....

[Gob]

After learning of swimming lane segregation based on gender, Pastafarian leader, The Flying Spaghetti Monster(FSM) is calling on the ACT for support to provide an option for Pastafarian’s only swimming in the ACT.

“A number of noodly knights have contacted me raising the case for Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster only swimming in the ACT,” said Lord FSM (in pirate language).

“Providing Pastafarian’s only swimming would increase the availability of swimming to a number of followers and benevolent pirates in our community, both for safety, and for fun.

“Some followers and families currently do not use our public pools due to religious reasons, accessibility concerns, or for body image reasons.”

Flying Spaghetti Monster followers require pasta sauce as a liquid medium for aquatic locomotion. Consensus suggests ‘marinara’ the most fitting flavour.

Are there any FSM followers, or sympathizers to the cause amongst the rioters before we submit the proposal to the Greens?

[Long Run]

I don't really have a problem with this if the Muslim female population is a sizeable constituency and there are reasonable limits on the amount of sessions; let the locals work out how they want to balance the usage of this public resource. It is common to try to accommodate groups of people, who for cultural or religious reasons, have difficulty using public (or private) facilities. Examples include, having Sunday sports for observant Jews or Seventh Days, libraries that have events for various types, schools that make exceptions for different cultures or religions, etc.

[Gob]

The Muslim community is very small, at about 1.5%, some of them are arguing against separate provision, there is no indication that a percentage of them are for it.