14 DAY TRIAL // Protests against the separation of men and women in class have taken over universities in the UK as students say this kind of “gender apartheid” violates women's rights and shames Britain's democratic society.
UK's universities seem to have complied with the extremist Islamic demands to segregate men and women in the academic activities, women are either pressured into sitting in the back of the rooms or in a different class viewing courses via live feed.
Many Muslim extremist visits in universities have promoted the separation by gender and some of these requests have been practiced ignoring students' complaints and discrimination accusations. The opposing part created a group meant to monitor these extremist demands and activities around campuses.
The Student Rights organization publicly shamed the universities accepting extremist demands and revealed the shocking segregation practice. One particular case concerning a debate organized by the Islamic Education and Research Academy at the University College of London involved an actual attempt to “physically remove the members of the audience who would not comply with a [gender] segregation policy,” notes Daily Mail.
Universities UK, an organization that speaks on behalf of almost 132 British academic institutions, is currently supporting the segregation of men and women as an attempt to allegedly respect “the freedom of speech of the religious groups or speakers.” The matter is questionable as the freedom of speech of one group or individual affect the rights of a bigger group, in this case the audience.
This kind of behavior is believed to be disgraceful in a society that promotes democracy and equality and has led students to protest outside Universities UK's London headquarters. The men and women gathered at the demonstrations held placards reading all kinds of messages against discrimination and gender segregation.
“We reject gender apartheid,” “Shame on UUK, no racial apartheid, no gender apartheid, ”Separate is never equal,” are just some of the messages written on the protestants' signs. Important figures from UK's academic field have accused universities of betraying the main principles of a free society and crashing feminism and progressive ideas.
“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,” Columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown said, according to Daily Mail.
The rights that democratic societies fought for, with big costs in the past, are the reason used for backtracking to the exact situation that caused conflicts in the first place. It is paradoxical as a society promoting equal-rights and democracy steps on its own core beliefs to allegedly respect a minority's controversial demands.