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.

Yup.

And aren't the RS general meetings held under the authority of someone from the First Presidency? I seem to remember there was always a man present.

Add to that my cultural Catholicism, and I guess I'm just used to women being religious second-class citizens.

I definitely don't disagree with you but annoying we wouldn't get away with changing religious practices and customs however abhorrent we find them.

There shouldn't be any hijabs in any British state schools, regardless of the age of the pupil.
There also shouldn't be any hijab, or any other religious symbols, worn by anyone in public employment, and employers should be allowed to ban them.

People on here who are younger probably don't realise how recently the hijab became widespread in Britain. I went to a (feepaying) school, and had many Muslim friends, most of them from Arab countries. None of them wore hijab.
In the 80s and 90s my daughter was at school with the children of a Pakistani family. None of the women in that extended family wore hijab, though they wore traditional clothing (shalwar kameez). Also in the 90's, my sister lived in Burnley, and about 90% of her neighbours were Pakistani. None of the women wore a hijab.

The increasing spread of hijab (and worse, face coverings like niqab and burka) is part of the spread of more extreme interpretations of Islam in this country.

That's too big a risk, but it would be amazing if anyone tried this stunt.

This sect is not considered Muslim by Muslims. The way Christians would say Mormons are not Christians

Women only spaces are generally for privacy from men because they are a) a danger to
women In a way that women are not a danger to men b) for fair competition due to
biological differences c) for a specific biological need.

If this was a thread about this one it would be different. Just as I'm in favour of clamping down on extremist mosques and celebrate the long over due proscribing of the IRGC and think we should be controlling the jihadi linked political Islam I am not in favour of over generalising about Islam.
If we want to defeat Islamic terrorism we need to avoid a scattergun approach in favour of an informed response.
The Ahmadis are not the Taliban (may they rot in hell) or Hamas, Hezballah Houthis or any other Iranian proxies.
If we really want to defeat the extremists targeting the Ahmadis is just stupid.

But that's not legally the line for having women only spaces (or mens only spaces). If it was, then women would need to always prove the safety/physical difference need every time they set one up. Which would be annoying. Yes, women only rape crisis centres are vital. But women should also be able to set up a women only book group or knitting group of they want. Eg the Women's Institute being female only isn't explicitly because of safety concerns, or because men are physically better at making Jam and singing Jerusalem** and would outcompete the women. The argument against including trans women in the WI couldn't hinge around safety concerns alone. (As it happens, the WI now has to choose between being single sex and excluding trans women, or becoming mixed sex). Or you fall into "why can't Gary be in the women's changing rooms. He's disabled and isn't a threat" that's not the point.

Likewise if a religion wants to separate men and women for it's big festival then they can. If you think through the implications of banning that then women as a whole lose out as well.

**I know there more to the WI than that.

I also don’t think IGNORACE is bliss

I have read the thread. But the headline of the thread is that it is the largest ‘men-only festival’, when it is on record as having around 20,000 women in attendance. The cars that drive past are full of families.

They segregate upon arrival and go to women’s events/sessions organised and run by the women of the community and the men go to ones for the men - rather as they do in their mosques. In effect it is a weekend pop up mass mosque. If we allow the religion to be practiced in the UK and mosques to operate, we have no legal standing to be opposed to this. Or the way their community segregates by sex within the organisation of its religious observance. This is a bigger issue than the festival - it starts in the mosques and we have allowed it to operate in this way in the UK due to tolerance and adherence with human rights laws, so I am not sure that there is anything we can do or say about this event in and of itself.

The Ahmadi sects are non violent and does not believe in the Jihad - well it believes in the ‘Jihad of the pen’ and, as we all know, inflammatoy writings can inspire and trigger violence so perhaps the fact they are , , though it is very much of the view that Islam is the purist and final form of all religions, so I am not sure how it sits within islamic fundamentalism and where the line is drawn. It does seem to support/believe in Sharia law.

For me, I am deeply uncomfortable with everything islam - in fact I have issues with fundamentalism in christianity, with zionism, all religions and would see all faiths removed from public life, schools and our institutions. I find it difficult to understand that a faith/culture this extreme has been allowed to evolve within our essentially secular legal and cultural framework. Other than doing what they are beginning to do in some EU nations - banning the burka etc - I am not sure how we row back from this.

Whereas some people are so tolerant they are exhibit suicidal empathy.

@Imdunfer
For me, I am deeply uncomfortable with everything islam - in fact I have issues with fundamentalism in christianity, with zionism, all religions and would see all faiths removed from public life, schools and our institutions.

Sounds pretty totalitarian to me. A faith is personal are you going to revert to loyalty tests etc to separate the sheep and goats before anyone can take part in public debates.

How is it totalitarian? I’m not saying that people can’t practice them in private or in collective?

I simply do not want prayers of any flavour in schools, council chambers, university graduation ceremonies, or Parliament. I don’t want it to shape or influence the devising of our laws or the interpretation of them in courts. I want only the laws enacted by the government we have democratically elected to be the ones that people live by. I live in a secular country (where I was raised in a muslim, Iranian household btw) I want it to remain so.

I’m not the one who started a thread misrepresenting an Islamic festival?

It’s funny how they can do this in our country but we cant go to their home country and do this…

You are aware that Islam doesn't rule the UK, yes?

Your arguments aren't making much sense.

This is the problem for me,this all or nothing absolutism.
Suicidal empathy is extreme. I agree it exists and is being proudly claimed by some.
However that doesn't diminish the importance of empathy and it's role in tolerance.
I thinks it's totally counterproductive to replace empathy and tolerance with totalitarianism.
Speeches from this gathering are on line, it's transparent. We need to work with moderate Muslims and have good rational reasons for what we do.
On what grounds would you have stopped this gathering?

Well I didn't write that so I have no idea why you tagged me on it.

I would stop any public gathering that divides men from women for reasons of maintaining power over women and maintaining women as a less important sex.

I would say the same if this was Jewish or Catholic and there were elected officials in this country who hold their positions by virtue of their religion.

And I'd bet my bottom dollar I wouldn't have faced the criticism on this thread if this gathering had been Jewish or Catholic, and that there would be also be public figures decrying the segregation and subjugation of women.

So they are Muslims that other Muslims want to kill? Another reason to not want it here.

I would stop any public gathering that divides men from women for reasons of maintaining power over women and maintaining women as a less important sex.
That is your assumption from your understanding of fundamentalist Islam.
All you would achieve is the further isolation of Muslim women in their communities making them more vulnerable to male violence with no where to turn.
If you really care go after the hate preachers in mosques.

Really? Try monasteries. Nunneries.

This festival has been held in the UK since 1964 without any controversy

The first Jalsa Salana in the UK took place in 1964.[7] Jalsa Salana UK serves as an International Jalsa, since the Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Mirza Masroor Ahmad resides in the country after his migration from Pakistan. This was because it was difficult for Ahmadis to call themselves Muslim or to "pose as Muslims" and therefore was nearly impossible for the Head of the Community at that time to carry out his role as a Khalifatul Masih. From 1985 to 2004, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK used a site near Tilford, officially known as Islamabad, for the Jalsa. Since then, because of rising visitor numbers, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK bought another site near Alton of an area of 208 acres (0.84 km2), named as 'Hadiqatul-Mahdi'. Islamabad has also been used for accommodation purposes and shuttle services are used to attempt to reduce severe traffic congestion.[8] The Jalsa Salana in the UK is usually held on the last weekend of July. The number of participants average around 30,000 annually. In 2017, about 37,000 people from more than 100 countries attended the Jalsa.[9]

But why are you objecting to men and women having conferences separately? Would it be ok if they're weren't Muslim?

Or you think all spaces should be mixed sex?

It is not an assumption, it is based on what I read and hear from Moslem women from fundamentalist communities who have escaped the grooming and brainwashing that they have been experiencing since birth.

Read the thread.