As of January 28, according to Abbie Ruzicka's Boston University Daily Free Press report, Harvard has imposed women-only swimming hours at its Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center. Harvard adopted the women-only hours after members of the Harvard Islamic Society and the Harvard Women's Center petitioned the university for a more comfortable environment for women. Ruzicka's account makes clear the Muslim impetus of the policy:

Harvard Islamic Society's Islamic Knowledge Committee officer Ola Aljawhary, a junior, said the women-only hours are being tested on a trial basis. The special gym hours will be analyzed over Spring Break to determine if they will continue, she said.

Aljawhary said that she does not believe that the women-only gym hours discriminate against men.

"These hours are necessary because there is a segment of the Harvard female population that is not found in gyms not because they don't want to work out, but because for them working out in a co-ed gym is uncomfortable, awkward or problematic in some way," she said.

Michael Graham's Boston Herald column comments:

In the old days, Harvard would have laughed if some Catholic or evangelical mother urged “girls-only” campus workouts in the name of modesty. Today, Harvard happily implements Sharia swim times in the name of Mohammed.

At Harvard, that’s called progress.

Graham tracked a Harvard spokesman down and elicited the usual obfuscatory blather:

When I asked Harvard spokesman Bob Mitchell about this new Sharia-friendly policy, he denied that they were banning anyone. “No, no,” he told me, “we’re permitting women to work out in an environment that accommodates their religion.”

By banning all men from the facility, right?

“It’s not ‘banning,’” he insisted. “We’re allowing, we’re accommodating people.”

Graham is unfortunately, to borrow a phrase, a voice crying in the wilderness.

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