Privacy curtains to allow female Muslims to swim without worrying about men watching are causing controversy for a western Sydney council.
The privacy curtains have been installed at Belgravia Leisure, a council-run facility in Auburn.
The curtain runs around a glass wall which is drawn when female-only swimming sessions are held for two hours every Sunday and at other times during the week.
.... The push for inclusiveness has been applauded by Silma Ihram, head of the Australian Muslim Woman's Association.
"Good on the council for understanding there is a number of people who can't swim because of their religious background," she said.
.... But legendary swimming coach Dick Caine, who has trained numerous Olympic swimmers, believes the push for inclusiveness is actually causing division.
"It is dividing Australia, it is dividing families," Caine said.
"The thing of this segregation, the thing of making them separate, it's making them that they are different. That people think they are either better than us or that there's something strange about them or that the males are standing over them." [Nine] Read more
