Saudi Arabia clamps down on unlicensed female gyms

[Nagishkaw 510]

JEDDAH (Reuters) – "Let her get fat!" is the slogan women in Saudi Arabia are using to challenge a clampdown on female-only gyms.

Unhappy at the growing number of unlicensed female gyms, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs recently closed two in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and one in the city of Dammam on the Gulf Arab coast for not having a license.

In response, newspaper columnists and bloggers are promoting the sarcastic line "let her get fat!" as a way of fighting back, though it is likely to be a losing battle.

In Saudi Arabia, where clerics have extensive influence in society, gyms are sexually segregated because of conservative tribal and religious values.

Female participation in sports has long been a controversial issue in the kingdom, with physical education banned from public girls' schools and clerics issuing religious prohibitions on female participation in sports.

While male gyms get licenses from a government sports body, female gyms have no official authority overseeing them.

"The idea of female fitness is non-existent within our government," said Fouziah Alouni, a prominent women's rights campaigner.

"Depriving women of this is yet another way of marginalizing them. Give us a justifiable reason or leave woman alone. This is unbearable."

The result has been high rates of diabetes and even bone frailty among women, which the Ministry of Health says it wants to combat.

"Football and basketball are sports that require a lot of movement and jumping," Sheikh Abdullah al-Maneea, member of the official Supreme Council of Religious Scholars, said in a religious opinion published in Okaz newspaper Thursday.

He said such excessive movement may harm girls who are still virgins, possibly causing them to lose their virginity.

"There is a school of thought that unfortunately exists and which has a distorted interpretation of Islam," said Lina Al-Maeena, who organises basketball training in Jeddah.

Women's gyms can only exist inside hospitals as "health centres" supervised by the Ministry of Health but prices are so high, at least 1,000 riyals ($266) a month, that only the affluent can afford membership.

Cheaper versions have sprung up under name "beauty salon" or "studio" but now their future is in doubt.

Madawi Al-Hassoun of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce said the chamber has been trying for three years to find a government body prepared to take on board licensing female gyms.

"Some people don't like women to go out of their homes. This is a common struggle for female businesses in Saudi," she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090430/od_nm/us_women_gym

[beans 7]

Basketball makes you lose your virginity? Man..I must be a sl*t then lol

[sara..... 371]

Basketball makes you lose your virginity? Man..I must be a sl*t then lol

im still laughing over the stupidity of that claim, i must be in a world of trouble then and is prolly a good thing im going to marry a doctor, i played basket ball in high school, i ride dirt bikes as well as just about every ATV out there, until i was a teen ager i also trained in judo, my God if that little piece of tissue is all that states ur a virgin there are a lot of girls in big trouble...........no wonder there are doctors making a fortune from doing a surgical procedure that reconstructs the hymen.

what in the world happens to the poor baby girls that fall when they are infants this can also break the hymen does this mean that girls that are virgins in every way with the exception of having a fall they are two young to remember break the hymen are considered non virgins

such total ####### and garbage that men think always seems to surprise me

sara

[Nagishkaw 510]

Consider the source, Sara.

[sara..... 371]

Consider the source, Sara.

lol i know but geez, kind of makes me remember when my dad found out i had become a miss, said oh better dont let her out in the rain now, and for sure dont let her work on the farm could make her sick now of course i wish i had played that card lol

sara

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

Basketball makes you lose your virginity? Man..I must be a sl*t then lol

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Celebrate diversity. All cultures are equal.