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Muslim women in NC head to secluded pool
Salman Sheikh was organizing a swim class for his two sons last summer when fellow Muslim parents approached him about starting a class for girls. Sheikh told them he would ask the Curran Aquatic Center in Cary, N.C., whether it could accommodate a group of Muslims who preferred a women-only pool.Yes, of course, the leaders of the aquatic center said, and showed him a 15-yard pool that could be rented for $170 an hour. Problem was, the small pool overlooked a larger, Olympic-size pool, and Sheikh wondered whether the center could provide blinds to cover the windows and shield the women from onlookers. Sure, the centers leaders said, but it would cost $3,000 for custom-made blinds. Sheikh was ready to drop the idea. But the Muslim community in Raleigh, N.C., and Cary wouldnt let him. Within a month, Sheikh, a native of Pakistan who works as a project manager for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, raised the money and signed up 35 women for the first class. Last month, a group of women of all ages dipped their toes into the water for the first time. This type of accommodation to the religious requirements of their faith is something Muslims are seeing more. All-Muslim Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops have cropped up across the country. Muslims are entering politics, studying Islam at major American universities, even finding halal, or ritually slaughtered foods, at local stores. I see this as a sign of Muslims learning to operate within American civic institutions, said Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. Many devout Muslim women adhere to their faiths requirements to guard their modesty, which for them means covering their hair and bodies in the presence of men who arent their relatives. By doing so, they believe they are deflecting the desires and gazes of the opposite sex and living the kind of life the Prophet Muhammad might have approved. In mostly Muslim countries, it is common to have separate pools for men and women. But in the United States thats virtually unheard of, and as a result many Muslim women grow up not knowing how to swim. Saleha Bhatti of Raleigh, who accompanied her 16-year-old daughter, Sanaa, to the swim class, said that was the case in her family. Had she stayed in Pakistan, she might have taken lessons at a womens pool, but in the United States, it wasnt an option. We never had the chance to learn, Bhatti said. Jenny Jaber, a convert to Islam who lives in Raleigh, said learning to swim should not be a luxury. Indeed, she said, learning to swim is encouraged in the oral sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, known as the hadith. Ive wanted to waterproof this community for a long time, said Jaber, who worked as a water safety instructor until she converted. Were around water all the time, and it unnerves me to see these women standing on piers. Many of the women came dressed in full-length Burkinis, swimming costumes that looks much like a scuba-diving suit but are made of water-protected polyester rather than rubber. Posted by: ryuge 2009-01-10 |
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