'Shameful' workout video sparks debate about women in gyms

'Shameful' workout video sparks ridiculous Gulf debate about women in gyms

A video of a woman working out with a male personal trainer caused quite a stir in Kuwait.

Narrated

2 min read

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02 Oct, 2018

The morality of mixed-gender gyms was debated [Getty]

A video from Kuwait which has been circulating around Gulf Arab social media circles this week, has sparked outrage and led to a polarising debate.

The video appeared to show a woman doing pelvic thrusts with weights, under the supervision of her male personal trainer.

The video was picked up by Kuwaiti social media news outlet page al-Majlliss, which uploaded it to their Twitter account and asked followers for their opinion.

Social media users took to great lengths to both shame and defend the woman, debating on the "morality" of mixed-gender gyms and whether personal trainers should even be filming workouts.

“What do you think of this new phenomenon of young men training girls at the gym?” the page asked in the tweet.

Many were angry at the shameful nature of a woman training at a mixed gym:

Translation: Unislamic before it's shameful

Translation: This woman has no shame

Translation: What a show of mockery, recklesness and immorality

Translation: Are we not Muslim?

Translation: Disgraceful

But there were also calls for people to stop judging her:

Translation: The girl, her father and husband accept it. What is it to you?

Some saw no problem in what she was doing, but believed the trainer was wrong for filming the session:

Translation: This is normal training but he shouldn't have filmed it

Despite the commotion, many defended the girl's decision and asked for her to be respected:

Translation: Do what you need to do and forget about the affairs of others

Translation: What's so controversial about this?