LBC Radio Debate: UK Court rules Sex Segregation at Muslim school was illegal

On 27th April 2016, the OFSTED Chief Inspector declared that sex segregation at mixed-schools 'flouts the requirement to promote British values' that would lead to a report rating of 'Inadequate' against inspected schools found with such practices

In 2016, Al-Hijrah school won a court ruling against OFSTED, which ruled that sex segregration was not illegal under the 2010 Equality Act

Guests

Aisha Ali-Khan, human rights activist, campaigner for Women United, and spokesperson for Shiply Feminist Zealots

Abdullah al Andalusi, international speaker and debater, and co-founder of the Muslim Debate Initiative

Channel: LBC

[London Broadcasting Company, Global Radio, UK]

14th October 2017

Host:

Andrew Castle

Birmingham (UK), is known to have a number of areas with a high population of Muslims. Consequently, many schools in these areas are Islamic faith schools, or schools with high proportion of Muslim students, and a high proportion of Muslim parents invovled as school governors.

In 2014, the UK government's education regulator, OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills) launched an investigation into a number of schools in the Birmingham area as part of an 'anonymous tip' into a [Muslim] 'trojan horse' plot to 'take over' a number of non-faith schools

OFSTED appealed the ruling, and on 13th October 2017, the UK court of appeal ruled that sex segregation at the Al-Hijrah school was illegal (despite the female and male students receiving the same quality of education)