The Muslim Young People in Amsterdam (Moslimjongeren Amsterdam, MJA) group organized a spring meeting in Amsterdam to discuss various problems faced by young Muslims.
One housing company, Ymere, organized a workshop to talk about living conditions. One of the problems brought up was the inability to study due to living in cramped quarters with a big and noisy family. The students don't want to move to student apartments since as one person said "I want to live in separate quarters, but not in student apartment with just drinking kids". Another girl said she would like to live together only with other girls and then preferably Muslim since it is not the Muslim way to go live outside the home before marriage. Ymere will see to offering such apartments.
The company wants to build neighborhood projects in consultation with the residents. One idea that came up is to build an Arabic fountain in Reimerswaalbuurt, a new neighborhood in Osdorp so that "we must make sure that we can be proud of our neighborhood and recognize ourselves in it."
Ahmed Aboutaleb, alderman for Amsteram, concluded the meeting with his recommendations saying that he could see benefit in non-co-ed student apartments for girls, but he doesn't think it is desirable to build separate residences for Muslim students.
Source: Parool (Dutch), Ymere (Dutch)
No comments:
Post a Comment