Politicians in the second largest city in Denmark have voted to scrap women-only sessions at a public swimming pool, becoming the first in the country to do so.
Council officials in Aarhus voted this week by 26 votes to 5 to end the gender-segregated sessions at the Gellerupbadet swimming pool, saying people need to “learn to swim together”.
Many of the women who have until now made use of the single-sex sessions for a few hours each Saturday are believed to be Muslims who live on a nearby housing estate which is populated almost entirely by immigrants.
The ruling party on Aarhus City Council, Venstre, believes that splitting up men and women when swimming in a public pool is unacceptable in 21st century Denmark.
The proposal put out by the council officials read: “Children and adults need to learn that it is completely natural to swim together regardless of religious belief. Therefore it is a disservice and not an integration initiative when special offers are made.”
However, according to news service thelocal.dk, the Danish Institute for Human Rights will make a formal complaint to Denmark’s Anti-Discrimination Board as a result of the vote. The group maintains the decision discriminates against Muslim women who want to swim in public pools.
Its spokeswoman Maria Ventegodt told the Ritzau news agency: “When you take away the opportunity you make it more difficult for ethnic minority women to use the swimming pool and participate in society. I believe that is problematic. It is very important to work toward eliminating social controls, but there is nothing to indicate that the women use this programme because they are forced to by their husbands or fathers.”
Female-only swimming sessions are regarded as contentious in Denmark, which has a significant Muslim presence relative to the country’s 5.7 million population.
Last year the City of Copenhagen’s deputy mayor for culture and leisure, Carl Christian Ebbesen, of the Danish People’s Party, said that separate swimming sessions for Muslim girls were bad for integration and “destructive” for Danish culture.
