Kamloops yoga instructor told his shorts are too short

 

Mohd Abdullah in a pair of his short shorts, which have led to complaints.

Photograph by: Handout photo, The Province

A taste for short shorts has landed a Thompson Rivers University lecturer in hot water with Kamloops City officials, who say his outfits are too revealing for the city's largest recreational complex.
Mohd Abdullah, a pilates and yoga instructor who also teaches computer science at TRU, says he's been warned twice by officials at the Tournament Capital Centre that the shorts he wears when working out there are too short.
But the 48-year-old has refused to heed the warnings -- and says he'd rather rescind his membership at the centre than toss out the six to eight pairs of short shorts he owns, one of them purchased from a Montreal Wal-Mart in 1997 for $5.
"I think it is discriminating and at the same time, I think it is a double standard," he said. "Here you have women that are wearing shorts that are half my size and with, excuse my lingo, the boobs half falling [out] -- and that's acceptable."
Clint Andersen, sport development supervisor with the City of Kamloops, said there have been a series of attire-related complaints lodged about Abdullah since he began working out a year ago.
They have centered on the length of Abdullah's shorts, as well as their "looseness" and revealing nature, he said.
Andersen said Abdullah keeps wearing them despite the warnings, the most recent on Wednesday.
When asked what actions the centre will take if Abdullah continues to ignore the requests, he said: "I'm not going to speculate on something that is not a reality."
Andersen said a "user guidelines sheet" posted inside the centre offers a rough outline of what's acceptable to wear.
"It definitely doesn't get into specifics, nor do we want it to get into specifics -- because the last thing we want to be is attire police," Andersen said.
Meanwhile Abdullah, who said he's getting moral support from his wife and colleagues at the university, is prepared to take his shorts elsewhere if necessary.
"I'm not going to change my style, not when I'm half a century old," he said. "I'm just going to keep wearing what I wear."