Outrage forces UK shopping center to review decision to install ’squat loos’ for Asians
By ANIThursday, July 22, 2010
LONDON - A British shopping centre’s decision to install “squat toilets” for Asian customers has come under intense criticism by outraged council chiefs.
According to reports, two of the 200-pound loos, which users crouch over rather than sit on, were put in alongside traditional loos in a bid to raise cultural awareness.
The hole-in-the-ground toilets, sometimes known as Nile pans, are installed in both the ladies’ and gents’ at the Exchange Center in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
However, Labour councillor Farooq Ahmed said: “I have been inundated with calls saying this paints the wrong picture of the Asian and Muslim community.
“I don’t know of any Asian or Muslim families with these toilets,” The Daily Star quoted Ahmed, as saying.
The pans were first installed after Exchange Center management attended a “cultural” training course with community activist Ghulam Rasul Shahzad.
Meanwhile, managers at the mall were set to cave in to pressure and abandon the scheme.
“The decision is being reconsidered,” a source said. (ANI)
