Female Muslim students were today urged to officially complain about university events where they are segregated from men.
Queen Mary University of London launched an investigation after women were banned from speaking at a seminar hosted by its Islamic society.
Pavan Dhaliwal of the British Humanist Association warned that the incident could be the tip of the iceberg and said students must report all such events.
She said students should contact the humanist association directly, or complain officially to their universities and “we will back them”.
She said there had been at least 40 cases within the last year where religious speakers demanded — and got — segregated university audiences. Ms Dhaliwal said: “The situation is simply unacceptable, universities are secular institutions, not places of worship, and sex segregation should have no place in secular spaces in which we expect to find equality between men and women.”
At the Queen Mary event women were forced to write down any questions and pass them to the front whereas men could raise their hands.
After being made to walk through a “sisters only” entrance, women were forced to sit at the rear of the lecture theatre with men at the front. One female arts student described the treatment as “degrading”.
The seminar featured speaker Ustadh Abu Abdillah and was hosted on November 18 by the university’s Islamic Society. David Cameron said last week he wanted such gender segregation at British universities banned. A Queen Mary spokeswoman said segregation was against their values and equality policy and they would investigate.
