When not engaged in jihad or shaving their backs, Muslim women like to stay buff.

Harvard University has banned men from one of its gyms for a few hours a week, a move to accommodate Muslim women who, for religious and cultural reasons, cannot exercise comfortably in their presence. The new policy is posted at the entrance to Harvard University’s Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center. For the record though, there is no actual religious tenant that disallows working out in front of men. The issue that these Muslim “hotties” have, is that they feel they will be ogled by men in the gym. This is part of the “modesty” clause that is part of the female roles in Islam.

Modesty? Sure. Taking steps to preempt an ogling? A little much.

The policy is already unpopular with many on campus, however, including some women who consider it sexist. “I think that it’s incorrect in a college setting to institute a policy in which half of the campus gets wronged or denied a resource that’s supposed to be for everyone,” said student Lucy Caldwell, who also wrote a column in The Harvard Crimson newspaper critical of the new hours.

Student Ola Aljawhary, who is Muslim and works out elsewhere on campus but is not one of the women who requested the change, rejected that argument. “The majority should be willing to compromise,” she said. “I think that’s just basic courtesy. We must show tolerance and respect for all others.” The trial policy went into effect February 4, about a month after a group of six Muslim women, with the support of the Harvard College Women’s Center, asked the university for the special hours, spokesman Robert Mitchell said.

“We get special requests from religious groups all the time and we try to honor them whenever possible,” he said, noting that the school has designated spaces for Muslim and Hindu students to pray. No men are allowed in the gym between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Mondays, and between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Even the staff during those times is all women. Not for anything, but the chicks you agree to work these hours, will MOST probably be checking those girls out 50 times more than any self-respecting dude.

The special hours allow the Muslim women, who adhere to traditional dress codes by covering their hair and most of their skin while in public, to dress more appropriately for exercising, said Susan Marine, director of the women’s center. “It’s a pretty big breach of their moral and religious code for a man to see them with their hair uncovered and it’s just not possible for them to be in a mixed environment,” she said.

Several Harvard men find the new hours inconvenient. Nick Wells, a junior who wrote an opinion piece in the Crimson criticizing the policy, suggested setting aside one room for women. “It’s not that I am opposed to the idea of helping people in religious groups or women in general, but I just think Harvard is not being fair to people like me who live (near the gym),” Wells said in an interview. The policy only applies to one gym, a facility mainly used for intramurals. Because of its location at the edge of campus, it is the university’s least used gym, Mitchell said.

An Associated Press reporter who went to the gym Monday did not see any Muslim women entering. Efforts to reach some of the women who requested the policy through the Women’s Center were unsuccessful. Which is ironic, you bitch about wanting to have an area to work out so you can be alone and modest, and then you don’t show. Good work ladies!