I’m actually confused as to why Islamic societies can’t run a gender segregated lecture from time to time, when the UK supports gender segregated schools, especially private sector schools such as Eaton, Winchester for Boys, St. Pauls for Girls, etc.
It seems that gender segregation is perfectly OK for children and when carried out under the auspices of a Christian or well-established organisation, but it’s unconscionable when it’s suggested by practising muslims for the benefit of practising muslims.
If women want to discuss issues around pregnancy and sexual health, and they’re more comfortable doing that without men present, I think universities should realise it’s not automatically an affront to civil liberties to create a space for those discussions to happen in a single gender setting.
Clearly it’d be wrong if every lecture was gender segregated, but that’s not what’s being proposed. It’s showing a lack of judgement to insist that no event could ever choose to invite women or men only, or to invite men to sit on one side of the room, women on the other, without automatically being sexist.
I’d rather trust the intelligence of people running events to act fairly, and have a process to reprimand sexist behaviour if it does occur, rather than lay down inflexible rules on the assumption that without such rules sex discrimination will automatically take place.
