“Muslim-Only” Shower Cabins Trigger Complaints About Muslim Privilege

A university in eastern China recently introduced Muslim-only shower cabins. The cabins, exclusive to Muslim students, offer more privacy than the regular communal showers. The new shower arrangements have fuelled discussions on Chinese social media, where many netizens are disgruntled and consider the special showers a display of Muslim privilege.

September 26, 2016

The Student Union of Anhui University of Science & Technology (安徽理工大学) recently introduced its new campus showers on Chinese social media. The new university campus communal showers has several shower cabins exclusively designed for Muslim students. News of the showers triggered a wave of complaints from Chinese netizens. The Student Union of the Anhui University posted several pictures of its newly renovated public showers on Chinese online platform Zhihu.com on September 17. While the new communal showers have divider walls, the “Muslim-exclusive” cubicles have their own private doors.

The university explained the design of these cabins in an announcement:

Due to limited resources and a large number of students, Chinese universities often have communal showers that provide little or no privacy. Dozens of students shower at the same place, sometimes without any curtains or divider walls. In the case of Anhui University of Science and Technology, the new public shower does have shower partitions, but it is only the “Muslim-exclusive” cabins that have their own doors, and thus offer complete privacy.  

The Muslim-exclusive shower cubicles of the Anhui University evoked heated discussions on Chinese online forums such as Baidu Tieba (百度贴吧). For many netizens, it is not the “privilege” but the “Muslim” element that angered them. “I also have the f**cking rule that nobody should see me shower, am I going to have an exclusive shower cabin now?” one netizen writes. “What’s next? Muslim-only shower water?!” others wondered. The news also triggered hate speech: “Why should we treat these green maggots as masters? Why should lesser people receive better treatment?” “All shower heads should be made into the shape of a pig”, another netizen remarks.