World Bulletin / News Desk

The Muslim community in Moscow has put forward suggestions to organize separate beaches for men and women and this  has been supported by representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, Jewish and Buddhist religions.

The request to the Moscow City Hall has been prepared and filed by Albir Krganov who is a deputy chairman of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Russia and also a member of the Public Chamber’s Commission for Harmonization of Relations between Ethnic and Religious Groups.

He claimed that “hundreds of thousands” of religious residents of Moscow did not wish to swim in a mixed beach “As not everyone can afford a trip abroad, and we consider it necessary to open additional recreation zones for the residents of the capital city who cannot stay on common beaches for religious or moral reasons,” Krganov wrote in a letter.

The activist pointed out that Israel, Turkey, and Germany have separate beaches for men and women and that this had a positive effect on the community. He said that segregated beaches were only Kazan, the capital of predominantly Muslim republic of Tatarstan.

The letter was signed by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s department for relations with the society, Vsevolod Chaplin, President of the Association of Russian Jewish Communities Aleksey Boroda and representative of the Traditional Buddhist Community of Russia Andrey Balzhirov, Izvestia reported.

Vice President of the Russian Union of Tourist Industry, Yuri Barzykin also threw support behind the plan, saying that separate beaches could help members of all confessions find a comfortable place for themselves.