To call for this charity to be sued under UK equality act ?!

[Sickleg]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1kwk1204jno.amp

They’ve got millions . Make them pay some of those millions to a women’s charity.

BBC STORY:

A charity run organised by the East London Mosque Trust has excluded women and girls aged 13 and over from taking part.
The Muslim Charity Run, which was held in Victoria Park in Tower Hamlets on Sunday, said on its website: "Our inclusive atmosphere ensures that every individual, from the youngest to the oldest, can take part and make a difference."
It added: "This is open to men, boys of all ages and girls under 12, but everyone is welcome at the park to cheer on the runners."

There's nothing illegal here.

First, it's important to be clear that this is a fundraising activity, not benefits provision from a charity. A mosque is not a charity whose stated purpose is to provide athletics opportunities to a specific group or the general public; the purpose of this event is to raise money for The EA treats these two types of activities differently. Most of the references to the EA here have been from the portions that address discrimination in provision of benefits, but those don't actually apply to fundraising activities.

Religious organizations have fairly broad rights to hold activities and restrict participation in ways that are consistent with its faith tenets. The catholic church does not have to ordain women or married men as priests, appoint divorced people to leadership positions, or employ openly gay Sunday-school teachers, to name some obvious examples. And religious organizations can generally hold public events whose rules and requirements for participation adhere to their faith tenets, including one that says that after childhood/puberty people of the opposite sex don't do certain activities together in public.

But they allow male children of any age to participate. There is no justification, especially as it was funded with London Marathon money and Muslim girls have huge cultural and practical barriers to their participation in sport.

I think they marketed it wrongly, in calling it a family friendly inclusive event.
If its a mens only run, fine. Call it that.
But its billed as a family event..... that only half your family are allowed to participate and the other half are invited to watch and cheer

Report it of course! What are you going to do?

Nope, not unless they allow male children under the age of 12 and ban them once they reach that age. There is no way that this is a men only race. It includes female children under the age of 12. Why is that ?

Who are you reporting it to?

I’m not doing anything.

Muslim women have been objecting - they’ve just been ignored though.

The mayor of Tower Hamlets was supporting this, doubling down on the fact that it’s a male only race - which it quite clearly isn’t.

So why is there an investigation underway as to whether it breaches the equality act ?

What you are missing is (from the MCR website itself, in their own words):

Open to everyone: runners, walkers, and children (girls under 12 and boys of any age)

If they had made it open to men only, and all children under 12, they would not have fallen foul of the current EA. But clarifying female children as only those who are under 12, but male children can be of any age, is the problem.
That is discriminatory, very clearly, against the female children over the age of 12.

The reasons why they consider males to be children at any age (presumably before they reach majority) but females to only be children if they are under 12 hasn't been confirmed. And it was a question repeatedly asked of the men who turned up to defend this on the thread in FWR yesterday - they steadfastly refused to answer it....

Exactly this. Women only race? No problem! Men's only race? Cool. A race for girls under 12 and boys/ men of ANY age? Not ok. Not compliant with the equality act legislation. Discriminatory, illegal, unethical and misogynist.

So all women events should be banned too… so many threads on this one charity run. Someone must be working overtime.

Who is investigating it? Why would the op be posting for “call to legal action” if someone was already investigating it (what investigation would it even need, you’d just get an equalities lawyer to advise?)

I think it is great that men and children have their charity event but they have still preserved the modesty of the women who get to stand on the sidelines and cheer them on.

Now over in Jeddah, I’m just about to pop to the local pool in my bikini. I hope that fits in equally well with the local attitudes and I’m not being tone deaf.

But seriously, whilst I actually think they should be able to do their run in the way they want. I do find the attitude to women rather offensive.

This page is far more relevant than the link you are looking at:

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/guidance/business/guidance-businesses/equality-law-voluntary-and-community/exceptions-charities-and

You are correct that there are some exceptions for religious organisations but as you can see, these are very specific. They don't appear to be excluding anyone on the grounds of religion or belief, or sexual orientation.

They would probably argue that they are using the single sex exception for religious organisations but this only applies to activities run by a religious minister, for the purposes of organised religion, at a place which is used for those purposes.

And they haven't advertised it as a single sex event.

I don't think your posting in good faith , you clearly don't care. Some of us choose not to look the other way.

Women haven’t been harmed (they weren’t allowed before, which you were fine with, and aren’t allowed now).

This was a ‘family’ event funded by money from the London Marathon. There was no justification for excluding women as it was not single sex. According to the mosque, women were excluded because of the objections of some men.

A group with a protected characteristic can be excluded if it is a proportionate means to a legitimate aim. What was the legitimate aim here?

And Horton Women's Holiday Centre for example allows female children of any age to stay -as it is female only - but also allows male children to stay with restrictions on age. As I said, the problem seems to be the lack of transparency. Particularly claiming to be inclusive. I suspect they don't explicitly say 'males and children under 12' more prominently because they wanted to avoid the type of scrutiny that they've subsequently come under. Namely "what's your problem with women and older girls?"

It was billed as a ‘family event’.

Presumably they don’t count women and girls of 12+ as ‘family’.

The East London Mosque Trust is a registered charity (1122613).
The Equality Act 2010 covers both charities and charitable events.
And if they had said both male and female children over the age of puberty could not take part, they probably would have been within the EA exemption. But they didn't. They just said the female children couldn't take part.

That seems to get things the wrong way round. I think the law should only ban things where there is a clear purpose to.

I think the onus is on anyone saying “we need to ban this harmless thing otherwise we can’t ban harmful things” to show why a different rule couldn’t achieve both.

The EA rule that says you can define a group based on an “or” but not an “and” produces weird results. If you run a career session for women that’s fine. If you run one for disabled people that’s fine. Done separately they are legal, even laudable. If you put them together they are no longer laudable, they are so bad that they need to be illegal. It is odd.

No, I think like the Op you’re clueless and haven’t got the first idea how to take action for a breech of the equalities act.

So I am simply asking what you are going to do. Clearly the answer is nothing. “Report them”- yeah right. What do you get think it is, a noise compliant to the council?

It is weird though. If your EA analysis is correct, the thing that makes this run illegal is that they’ve allowed 13-17 year old males.

Does EA make a distinction between those ages? I don’t think it does. A woman in the EA, for example, is a female “of any age”.

Please try reading the thread. It is explained many times how single sex events are often lawful. This was not a single sex event. This was billed as a ‘family’ event.

Do you agree with them that women and 12+ girls shouldn’t count as family?

No, the thing that makes it illegal is that they’ve allowed females up to the age of 12. How is this a male only run ? It was billed as a family event and the small print made it clear that women over the age of 12 were not welcome. Whichever way you want to twist this, that’s discrimination.