Hi,
I'm friends with a Muslim man at work. I don't know how strictly observant he is but he's definitely a practicing Muslim; prays 5 times a day, only eats halal, doesn't drink, etc etc. He has a partner (girlfriend I assume?) and they don't live together, so I've concluded he's not a 'casual' Muslim IYSWIM
He seems pretty modern and progressive in terms of understanding neurodiversity and DE&I at work, is happy to call out sexusm and microaggressions including a recent incident where someone used to word trans jokingly. He's a 'good guy'
I'm firmly GC feminist, though not loudly and especially not at work. I heard recently that some of our work loos were changing to gender neutral / mixed sex so I decided to ask him how he felt about this, especially with Muslim women in mind.
His answer, and I'm not sure how deliberate this was I can hear the rolling of 10 000 mumsnet eyes absolutely disengaged with women as having a valid issue and focused on his own issue. He shared that he was fairly happy to share loos as they're self contained, large sink cotaining cubicles. Fair enough, though the 'banks' of cubicles are tucked away behind another door so there is still a sense of privacy once you enter the area, and I'd feel surprised to stumble across a man and slightly unnerved.
We moved on to changing rooms as there are single sex open changing rooms with showers at work too. His absolute focus was on how as a Muslim he considers his whole body from knees to elbows to neck to be private, and women would be likewise except to ankles and wrists. He is very uncomfortable showing any part of his body to anyone, male or female. He just could not engage with the conversation and acknowledge that for him or for a Muslim woman there was an extra added layer of discomfort being in such a space with people of the opposite sex.
I was really surprised by this answer and just wondered how typical it was.
In summary: if you're Muslim or know a Muslim well enough to have asked, is there no real difference in changing and exposing back and stomach skin in a single sex space vs a mixed sex space?
I tried to push and ask if maybe women were more sensitive to the difference between showing skin in single sex vs mixed sex and he just insisted that for Muslims it was showing skin to anyone that was problematic.
I don't know if he's aware he side stepped my question, and he's been an ally and a helpful sounding board in some sexist behaviour I've experienced, so I was surprised by how this conversation went.