Categories: Need to know

Saudi women banned from going to the gym

But they might get to vote!

by macleans.ca on Monday, April 27, 2009 1:56pm - 5 Comments

Saudi Arabia is about to shut down its dozen or so women-only gyms ostensibly because they’re “unlicensed and so illegal,” the Guardian reports. But leading Saudi clerics have recently condemned the gyms as places of “shamelessness” and argue they’ll tempt women to leave their homes and neglect their husbands and children. This would leave Saudi women who want to work out at the gym out of luck, given that mixed gyms are forbidden in the kingdom. The obvious step of making women’s gyms legal seems unlikely given that the authorities responsible for men’s gyms have “not been allowed or prepared to regulate those for women,” reports the paper, which quotes a businessman who tried to set up a women’s sports club and abandoned the project after hitting a wall at every turn. The gym shut-down occurs amid discussion that Saudi women might be allowed to vote in municipal elections for the first time, though no one is holding their breath: Prince Nayef, the powerful interior minister, who has said the kingdom had no need of either women MPs or elections, appears on the fast-track to succeed his half-brother the King.

The Guardian

Critical Reasoning

Why are those misogynistic Saudi clerics so afraid of vaginas? It’s hard to see why even the most hardline Islamic fundamentalist would object to women-only gyms.

Perhaps if some enterprising Saudi inventor came up with a sweat-wicking Lycra “sports burqa” that would allow Saudi women to exercise while completely concealing their sinful body parts from other women? The gyms could also have strict 1/2-hour time limits to ensure that those selfish exercisers don’t neglect their responsibility to serve their husbands and children at all times.

Since it is illegal for Saudi women to drive, perhaps a taxi service could be established, with shaded windows to ensure that Saudi men are not corrupted by the sight of women being driven to the gym.
john

The 1700c kingdom also know as Saudi arabia should be boycotted by all especially the NGO that doggedly and slavishly lick the boots of the UN at every turn. As long as we dont allow this non sense in Canada especially at our Universities ( a bastion of learning?)
Wayne

What really depreeses me is that I just finished reading this research into how much money some of the Saudi royal family (distant cousins as always) have been pumping into the Madrassas where so many religious fanatics receive their extremist contacts and training. It is as if they are literally seeding the world with some of the primitive religious notions most epsecially this Sharia Law that is no such thing. I think what that part of the world needs is an Islamic Reformation a sort of Arabian Descarte as it were. The people at some point have to stand up and say no more as to when such can happen who knows. All in all a depressing area to learn more about.. It’s strange as the more energy we put into looking at trouble areas like Pakistan and it’s northern tribal areas the more we pay less attention to what may be the seed behind this particular harvest. I sure give major Cudos to the PM for being one of if not the first to be putting the Durban conference in it’s proper place and am especially happy that other nations have joined us in this and though others may or may not agree it doesn’t really matter as what counts is standing up being counted.

Terry

Al-Queda and other Wahabi Islamists are the Islamic reformation. Intellectual schools and established institutions overwhelmed by new movements headed by leaders willing to use violence to bring about the religious societies they want.

What do you think Luther and Calvin were like anyway? You don’t get a nickname like the “butcher of Geneva” for nothing.