Muslims ask Moscow authorities for separate beaches for men and women

The suggestion of the Muslim community to
organize separate beaches for men and women
has been supported by representatives of the
Russian Orthodox Church, Jewish and Buddhist
religions.
The request to the Moscow City Hall has been
prepared and filed by Albir Krganov who is a
deputy chairman of the Spiritual Directorate of
Muslims of Russia and also a member of the
Public Chamber’s Commission for Harmonization
of Relations between Ethnic and Religious Groups.
The activist claimed that “hundreds of thousands ”
of religious residents of Moscow were deprived of
ability to visit city beaches that are currently
shared by men and women. “As not everyone can
afford a trip abroad, and we consider it necessary
to open additional recreation zones for the
residents of the capital city who cannot stay on
common beaches for religious or moral reasons,”
Krganov wrote in his letter.
The activist added that countries like Israel,
Turkey, and Germany have separate beaches for
men and women and that the effect from this is
positive. In the Russian Federation such beaches
exist in the city of Kazan, the capital of
predominantly Muslim republic of Tatarstan.
The letter was signed by the head of the Russian
Orthodox Church’s department for relations with
the society, Vsevolod Chaplin, President of the
Association of Russian Jewish Communities
Aleksey Boroda and representative of the
Traditional Buddhist Community of Russia Andrey
Balzhirov, Izvestia reported.
A member of the Public Chamber’s commission
for family women and children, Sultan Khamzayev,
said in comments with Izvestia daily that the
initiative was necessary as it was in the interest
of not only religion but also secular morals.
Vice President of the Russian Union of Tourist
Industry, Yuri Barzykin also threw support behind
the plan, saying that separate beaches could help
members of all confessions find a comfortable
place for themselves.
However, State Duma deputy Valery Rashkin
(Communist Party) urged caution in putting the
separate beaches project into reality. “I am
convinced that the society must not adjust itself
in accordance with some religious or moral values
of its separate members. There are dedicated
places – like churches and mosques where people
can unite in accordance with their ideas about the
world and the rules of life. We should limit
ourselves to these sites ,” Rashkin told Izvestia.
There is no precise data on the number of
religious people in Moscow but last year the City
Hall estimated that there were about 2 million
migrant workers in the city – the overwhelming
majority of which come from traditionally Muslim
ex-Soviet Republics in Central Asia.

Last July a spokesman for Russia’s Council of
Muftis urged Moscow authorities to build more
mosques in the city, saying this would prevent the
overcrowding of city streets on major holidays.
This was not the first suggestion of this kind, but
so far all such suggestions have been rejected.
In 2013, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin told
reporters that the majority of mosque-goers were
not permanent residents of the city and that
migrants should go home once their working
contracts expire. He added that the three existing
mosques could very well serve the needs of the
permanent residents of Moscow who adhere to
Islam.

Source : rt.com/politics/265216-russia-beaches-moscow-muslims/