Students demonstrate against 'gender apartheid' as Universities UK refuses to ban the separation of sexes during visits by speakers

Universities UK says 132 members can allow men and women to sit apart

Protesters say it 'violates women's rights' and takes Britain 'backwards'

Minority of Muslim groups have directed men and women to sit separately



Men and women are being segregated at universities as academics bow to the beliefs of extremist Islamic speakers.

University authorities are allowing the separation of sexes in fear of infringing the rights of the firebrands.

In most cases, women are made to sit at the back of rooms but in some instances they have been made to sit in a separate room and watch proceedings on screens via a live feed.

Anger: Protesters hold up placards rejecting 'gender apartheid' outside the headquarters of Universities Uk in London last night after their guidelines agreed that women and men can be segregated

Anger: The segregation by sex at university talks by visiting speakers has been called discrimination and those concerned say decision will take Britain backwards

Out of 180 visits by extremists monitored over a 12-month period, a quarter – or 46 – at 21 institutions were found to have promoted segregation by gender. Six of these events were cancelled, usually after complaints from students.

The astonishing practice was unearthed by Student Rights, a group set up to monitor extremism on university campuses.

It said security staff at one debate organised by the Islamic Education and Research Academy at University College London ‘tried to physically remove members of the audience who would not comply’ with a sexual segregation policy.



The practice is effectively supported by Universities UK, an umbrella organisation that speaks on behalf of 132 British universities. Its guidance says that failing to segregate men and women might breach ‘the freedom of speech of the religious group or speaker’.



Action: University College London has banned one Muslim group after it found one group had demanded gender segregation

Hardline Islam groups, have posted invitations on social media sites and at university campuses to public talks in an 'unprecedented scale', according to Sharia Watch UK. Activist Hamza Tzortzis is named in the report

Graham Stuart, chairman of the Commons education select committee, branded the guidance ‘nonsense’ yesterday and demanded that it be reviewed. ‘Segregation by sex is completely unacceptable in a publicly-funded institution,’ he said.

Keith Porteous Wood, of the National Secular Society, accused universities of betraying the ‘hallowed principles of freedom of expression’ by ‘succumbing to demands from speakers, generally those trying to undermine universal human rights’.

Student Rights, which describes extremism on campuses as ‘an increasingly worrying trend’, looked at all visits by extremist speakers in the 12 months to March. Director Raheem Kassam said segregation forced ‘cultural practices’ on to people on a public campus.

‘It is disgraceful that this can happen in a modern and equal society,’ he said. ‘If we’re going to make concessions like this then where does it stop? Should we segregate people by race?’

Students have been protesting outside the London headquarters of Universities UK this week over its stance.

The issue provoked a furious exchange between Muslim newspaper columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Omar Ali, of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, on Channel 4 News.

Worries: Leicester University spoke of its concerns over photos showing hand-written signs requesting that male and female students sat in separate areas at a public talk by the university’s Islamic Society

Mrs Alibhai-Brown described it as a ‘disaster for feminism, university life and progressive ideals’. ‘You can do what you like in mosques and temples,’ she said. ‘These are meetings by fundamentalists telling women to get out of the public space.

‘You are using democracy, freedom, the great rights, to fundamentally destroy these very rights. Don’t use our universities to impose these Saudi Arabian practices.’

Mr Ali dismissed ‘segregation’ as ‘an emotive use of language’. ‘If a society is set up to cater for religious needs on campus, why shouldn’t they?’ he said. ‘A lot of people would find it insulting to say this is something discriminatory against women.’

A Universities UK spokesman said its guidance ‘does not promote gender segregation’ and allows universities to make decisions ‘on a case by case basis’.

‘It includes a hypothetical case study involving an external speaker talking about his orthodox religious faith who had requested segregated seating areas,’ said the spokesman.