This huge Muslim Festival, 50,000 attendees from 100 countries, happened over the weekend in Hampshire. If previous years are anything to go by you will be hard put to find a single woman in any of the photographs. That's because the men and the women meet separately. The women and men are segregated. The women are excluded from taking part with the men, they have a separate conference, they aren't even sat at the back of the men's one.
I honestly never thought I'd be living in a country where women were so excluded from a public gathering of 50,000 people.
I never thought I'd be living in a country where this event will go without criticism and probably actually be praised and celebrated. "MPs, bishops and other public figures are expected to attend." and not one of them, and probably no other prominent public figure either, will comment on this segregation.
It's 2026, how on earth is this country going backwards so far in the treatment of women that this is now perceived to be mainstream and acceptable?
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/25/uk-largest-muslim-event-jalsa-salana-security-anti-muslim-hate-crime#:~:text=Now%20in%20its%2060th%20year,site%20in%20Hampshire%20this%20weekend.