Jalsa Salana, a huge men only festival in the UK.

[Imdunfer]

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.

How do the people who think there is no problem with this think it would go if Parliament worked like this?

Because don't forget, Sharia Law will be a big part of this conference.

Women and men socialise separately in most cultures. Look at your average British social gathering, or student parties or group holiday. I see a lot of Muslim women socially and they love the chance to let their hair down (literally) when men aren’t around, it’s utterly joyous for them. In our local park in the evenings there are large groups of Muslim women with the kids, eating cakes and picnics, going on swings, joking laughing, dancing. Then compare them to a miserable white British family where dad is on his phone, woman is trying desperately to get him to enjoy ‘family time’. I know which I think is healthier.
Stop trying to police other cultures! It works for them! The women probably don’t even want to go to the stupid festival!!

British culture is paying lip service to the idea that women are equal.

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?

Yup. Totally agree. If this were a Roman Catholic event, there would be wide public commentary, and loads of people talking about how the Catholic Church needs to recognise women's spirituality & ministry.

Funny, I haven't found any posts where you complain about the Catholic church which is run entirely by men and women are not involved in conferences/conclaves that decide how to run it.

Why is that?

There's obviously a balance to be struck, between the rights of individuals to freely associate with others with whom they share a protected characteristic, and to practice their religion, and the propensity for the exercise of those rights to treat certain groups unjustifiably less favourably.

From what little I know about Islam, I suspect that the ability of Muslim women to associate in the absence of men will prove, in the end, more useful than not.

I can’t work out if this post is satirical or not?

I grew up in a Christian religion which taught strict gender roles. At the biannual conferences, there were common sessions for men and women, but also one separate session for men and one for women, because teaching the gender roles was part of the purpose of the conferences.

I don't see the problem with another religion which teaches strict gender roles, applying those gender roles during its religious conferences. What are they supposed to do? Go, "Well, we believe in strict separation of the sexes, but obviously not during our biggest gathering" ? That wouldn't make sense.

So in my opinion, either you believe that people can believe in sexist religious principles, and then you let them apply these principles during their religious meetings (within the limits of the country's law, of course), or you believe that people shouldn't believe in sexist principles to begin with.

Yet another rage bait post dressed up as feminism 🙄

I take it, OP, you'll be making a separate similarly outraged post about the Catholic Men's Society National Conference?

The website says 21,000 women were in attendance. So what is your real issue? It's not a men's conference if 20k women are at the festival.

I don't see the problem? There is equivalent events for women surely? I'm not Muslim so it's not really my business if they choose to separate certain activities by sex.

People in the UK have the right to practice their religion. Or no religion without prejudice.

If you're saying you disagree with Islam as a whole that's your opinion and nobody is making you practice it. There are wider issues about equality that do need addressing but the act of having separate male and female prayers etc isn't the problem.

I do believe women have the right to their own exclusive spaces so therefore men should be entitled to the same.

Not sure it's really problem so long as the women were able to meet. The whole premise of Islam is to treat women as lesser isn't it so this wouldnt have been a surprise to the participants.

Because I have no recollection of a gathering 50,000 catholic men in this country excluding women from an event to discuss Catholisim.

I would have exactly the same objection.

Why should we allow women to be so obviously treated as lesser in this country?

How long before a Muslim dominated Council decides all women in their area are lesser, not just Moslem women?

So it is the sheer size of the gathering you have a problem with, rather than the fact that the men and women were segregated at this event, seeing as we now know there were actually a lot of women there too?

Ok. Thanks for the clarification.

It's two separate conference because the women are not allowed to attend the mens, and it's the men who control the faith.

I think the size, and the location of the event due to its size, and its international nature do make a difference, yes.

What they do inside a Mosque is no business of mine unless they are training jihadis.

No there is no equivalent for the women because the men control the church and the women are excluded from the meetings discussing how they control the church.

It isn't about praying, this is an international conference.

Yes, because women are built differently and lose if the sports are mixed.

This isn't rocket science.

Aren't Catholic gatherings also of an international nature?

OP's objection is with Islam's culture of segregation and seeing women as lesser.

This - also - is not rocket science.

I don't have a problem with religious people practicing their religion at their own events like this; everyone's chosen to be there and they aren't making me attend.

I do have a problem with it when it is forced on the rest of us. For e.g. women's only swim sessions in publicly run pools- I accept that a lot of non-religious women like them too so plenty of nuance here, but I dislike it when the primary reason given for holding them is a religious need for segregation.

That was also attended by many women. It's clear you're anti- Islam and nobody is forcing you to practice it.

A feminist OP is objecting to the subjugation of women. Well done.