While American leftists are obsessing about transgender bathrooms and supposed equality, progressives in Sweden are instituting “women only” hours at public swimming pools to appease Muslim migrants. They also have a problem with Muslim men groping women in public pools, which wasn’t an issue before the country was flooded with Muslims.
The migrants are the guest population but it’s the hosts who are being forced to change their behavior. Does that seem right or fair?
The Christian Science Monitor reports:
Sweden stirs debate with women-only swimming, in nod to Muslims
On the face of it, the decision to offer special women’s swimming hours at the Hyllie sports center, a municipal swimming pool in the southern Swedish city of Malmö, should not be contentious.
Indeed, Malmö is not alone. According to a survey by the Swedish TV channel TV4, 13 of Sweden’s 100 largest municipalities have begun offering separate swimming hours for men and women. “Our facilities are used by 40 percent women and 60 percent men,” Johan Hermansson, the head of Malmö’s recreations department, told TV4. “Our ambition is for them to be used equally by girls and boys, men and women.”
But the trend is not just about achieving 50-50 visitor figures. For decades, Swedish city swimming pools have operated mixed-gender pools, but by adding women-only hours, officials are hoping to accommodate the country’s growing Muslim population.
And that is raising a much larger issue for Sweden. Should the native population adjust to immigrant groups’ different lifestyles by accommodating women-only swimming and the like, thus providing access to Muslim newcomers who would otherwise not feel comfortable in gender-equal conditions? Or does the implementation of such segregation, however well intended, ultimately undermine the country’s hard-earned traditions of gender equality.
Many Swedes are no longer sure.
Stick a fork in Sweden.
It’s done.
