No Burkini Workouts for Women in Qatar

DOHA, Qatar, Aug. 6, 2010 -- This week Doha municipality has instructed Fitness First that male and female members are no longer permitted to train side by side. Women will also have to forgo their sessions with their favourite male personal trainers and work out in a segregated smaller, less-equipped gym within the changing rooms.

The fitness classes will also be split, vastly reducing the possible training options. But women are still permitted to use the existing prayer room, alongside men. There will be no refunds or compensation offered.

Some observers believe the gym faces a huge loss in customers to other hotel gyms in the city, which fall under a different licensing laws and therefore aren't subject to the decree.

"It is a temporary situation and we are working on an alternative, better solution for females but we must comply with the orders of the municipality," explained Dean Wantenaar, Doha general manager of Fitness First.

The small state of Qatar borders the very conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. There is a certain deja-vu of what happened in Saudi Arabia last summer in all of this. The Saudis clamped down on women's gyms and only clubs linked to medical groups can now get licenses and all others are being closed. Saudi women launched an online campaign protest called "Let Her Get Fat." In the Kingdom, physical education in schools is banned and clerics have issued religious prohibitions on female participation in sport.

The region has one of the world's highest rates of diabetes and obesity. One has to bear in mind that in 50 degrees (122F) of oppressive summer heat, the only place to exercise is inside. And due to religious and cultural traditions, it is impossible to train outside, given that a woman cannot expose her arms or legs. In the capital Doha, there is little pavement. This is a place made for big SUVs. Ladies don't totter along in Manolos in this desert city.