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.

We ask for women only spaces for safety reasons, the men aren’t scared of women. We can be all woke and PC but this is not acceptable.

It's nowhere near the same situation.

It's not being held "under our noses" FFS.

This particular branch of Islam - which is very much not mainstream, is called heretical by other branches of Islam and primarily focuses on peace - is mostly based in the UK and India. It started in the 1880s in the British Raj.

They are having a perfectly legal festival. They aren't bothering anyone else. There were roughly 30,000 men and 20,000 women. In no way are they trying to change our laws or destabilise our society. It's a festival. Get over yourself.

"No one is saying that men aren't allowed to hold events."

As long as women are also allowed to attend?

If it is proportionate to exclude men from women only services because it may be distressing for a woman for a man to be present then the same principle can apply because of the religious beliefs of the Islamic faith.

It's not just a festival, is it? It's women's rights we're discussing.

And this part of Islam might not be trying to destabilise us - I'm delighted to hear they are less radical - but Islam as a whole is.

A religion such as Islam teaches that women are inferior. If men are upset/offended because inferior women are present, that is not the same as a woman being upset by a man in her rape crisis group session.

Is it? I thought it was about a male-only festival?

So we all want single sex spaces except for single sex spaces.

". If men are upset/offended because inferior women are present,"

More likely they would be offended/ distressed that their religious beliefs are not being respected, in line with the British value of tolerance, so excluding women from the male conference ( and men from the women's one) are proportionate aims.

The Ahmadis are as I've said above are persecuted minority. They do not have control over any country so cannot apply Sharia law.
They are a peaceful people gathering in a
tolerant society because they would not be tolerated in many Muslim countries eg

Criminalization of Faith: Under Ordinance XX of the Pakistan Penal Code, it is a criminal offense for Ahmadis to call themselves Muslims, refer to their faith as Islam, or call their places of worship "mosques".Blasphemy Laws: Ahmadis who openly practice their religion face life imprisonment or the death penalty under strict national blasphemy laws. This was exemplified by the December 2025 sentencing of Mubarak Sani to life imprisonment for teaching the Holy Quran.

When the religion is at odd WITH the British values of tolerance, it raises these questions.

Don't give them facts that refute their argument.

Baptists are very different to Anglicans but they're both Christian. Similarly, there are different groups within Islam. This tarring everyone with one brush is deeply unhelpful and seeks to do nothing but divide. And it stokes hatred.

LDS church?

I get annoyed when they do the Relief Society broadcast, when there's a special message from the RS presidency, and they still have to have a speech from one of the (male) church leaders.

(The Relief Society is the women's organisation part of the LDS church if anyone wants to know.)

However just two weeks hence was the larger one (100k) at Shrubland Hall in Suffolk, linked to quite a different Muslim sect, and an event banned in a lot of countries because of those links.

Pretty sure Hampshire isn't in the North
If we want women only spaces (I do) then we have to allow men only ones too

We're north of Mecca.

"When the religion is at odd WITH the British values of tolerance, it raises these questions."

As I previously posted it is not for the UK to legislate religious beliefs. If gender roles were legislated against worship in mosques around the country would have to change as well as large conferences such as this.

As it stands it is legal to exclude sexes for various reasons such as safety, sporting fairness and religious practice.

I don't think this festival is the outrage OP makes it out to be.

That's culture not religion. Women and girls are expected to be educated; women have always been able to hold property, run businesses, inherit equally; women cannot be forced into marriage; women can divorce. The misogyny is cultural not religious and wherever women live, whatever religion they have, it's a fight against misogyny they have to face. Look at the rights women have had to fight for in this country in the last 100 years - the right to vote, get a bank account or mortgage in your own name, keep working after marriage, abortion. A lot of these fights are based on our history as a Christian country and Christian expectations of womanhood which we had to fight for. Men of any religion will try to oppress women if they think they can get away with it. Look at the rise of Christian nationalism in America. The abortion bans even for 10 year olds that have been raped and tell me that s not religiously motivated misogyny.

There is no issue of proportionality. People are allowed to have single-sex meetings just because they want to (Article 11 HRA. Freedom of assembly and association).

Oxford Dictionary describes tolerance as 'the quality of being willing to accept or tolerate somebody/something, especially opinions or behaviour that you may not agree with, or people who are not like you'.

Based on that, I'd venture to suggest there are folk on here who don't subscribe to 'the British values of tolerance'.

Apologies I misread the original post about attendees.

That is appalling if it's in a British state funded school.

This takes place not far from me - in fact at one point it was actually held near me on the outskirts of my town, but clearly it grew. I had absolutely no idea it was only for men having always assumed it was a ‘family orientated festival.’

I am actually rather horrified that we condone things in the UK where 50,000 men gather and women are explicitly excluded.

Actually am not sure that is is only men - can’t see where it says that?

Read the full thread. There were over 21,000 women present. They had separate conferences at the same festival.