Muslim activist fears ‘detrimental restrictions’ on women being normalised in Britain as mosque imposes fun run ban

Women and girls over the age of 12 were banned by the East London Mosque from taking part in a charity park run.

The event allowed men, boys and girls under 12-years-old to join, but forbade female teenagers and women from taking part. Mosque leaders insist that their policy does "not breach" the Equality Act, but campaigners have branded it "plainly unlawful" and "aggressively sexist".

Expressing her outrage at the event, Ms Khan told GB News: "This event is shameful for us as a society, because this event was organised under the pretext of an inclusive and family event, from which women and girls above 12-years-old had been excluded.

"And it's a shameful thing to do, but the fact is the religious and cultural beliefs that impose unwarranted, detrimental and undesirable restrictions on women and girls have been normalised in our society, to an extent where people don't even bother now if a male only event takes place in a religious setting.

"Women and girls are being discriminated on the basis of their gender and within a certain section of Muslim communities."

Highlighting her concern for the impact on women in the society and it being "normalised" under "multiculturalism", she added: "This has become normalised in our society under the pretext of multiculturalism or their culture or their religion, and we ought to respect it, and I find it really, really concerning.

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"It is impacting those people who are already marginalised in religiously conservative communities here in Britain."

Asked by host Alex Armstrong how we, as a society, tackle being called "Islamophobic" or "racist" for criticising such events, Ms Khan declared we "must speak out" for women's rights in Islam.

She explained: "It's a very concerning thing that whenever we want to talk about Islam, in certain conservative section of Muslim communities here in Britain, we are labelled as racist and Islamophobic.

"Can we genuinely engage in an open and honest discussion about, you know, Islamic culture and, you know, belief, ritual, tradition contributing to this situation without fear of repercussions? I fear we cannot."

She added: "The moment we criticise misogyny that stems from Islamic discourse, it is conflated with anti-Muslim bigotry, and then there is a noise there, there is an outcry. It just shuts down all the debate altogether. That is a concerning moment for all of us, but how can we tackle it? How can we counter this trade?

"We have to speak out. We have to talk about these things as much as we can. Dialogue, discussion. We cannot be silent if people are just accusing us of being an Islamophobic just for merely discussing women's rights in Islam, because religion or any religion, including Islam, is not above scrutiny, and there are certainly some discriminatory and highly and deeply misogynistic teachings and practices and traditions and rituals which ought to be scrutinised for the betterment of women and girls."

In a statement, an East London Mosque spokesman said: "The suggestion that our event breaches the Equality Act is entirely incorrect.

"Single-gender sporting events are lawful under Section 195 and Schedule 23 of the Act, and are common across the UK, including the Women's Run Series, Nike Women's 10K, and gender-segregated swimming sessions at Orthodox Jewish facilities like Manchester Jewish Community Centre.

"The Muslim Charity Run operates under the same legal framework as these established events."