WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — For some, going into the gym isn't about fitness; it's about feeling safe. A new gym in West Valley City is working to make sure that all feel safe and free from judgment.
For Noshaba Jahangeer, stepping into a gym once came with hesitation. "I was kind of scared to go to a gym because there's a lot of public presence. People are recording at the gym."
She says that as a practicing Muslim, modesty and privacy are an important part of her faith. "This is our personal life," Jahangeer explained. "We don't want someone to expose our personal life."
Advocates say that concern is becoming more common as gym culture and social media collide.
"Exercise can already put people in a more intimate position already, and so you compound this with people of the opposite sex or opposite gender, and that can just heighten the sense of a lack of safety and lack of trust," Danica Baird, a policy associate with the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault, explained to FOX 13 News.
That’s where the small community gym in West Valley City, HerWell Community Gym, comes in.
"We just really want to build a community," stated Anna Ek the founder of the HerWell Community Gym. "Women who are safe, supported, and empowered."
Their small but mighty group is pushing to change the culture inside of gyms. "We have had members who have told us that they've had negative experiences where people have said things to them at the gym," Ek remembered.
For them, changing gym culture starts with something simple: making sure every woman feels safe enough to show up.
"I feel really safe there. It's more than a gym to me," Jahangeer stated.
