Ministers talk equality but stay silent on FGM, forced marriage and Sharia courts – Rebecca Paul

Earlier this year, I took the unusual step of publishing a minority report to the Women and Equalities Committee’s inquiry into discrimination, harassment, and abuse against Muslim women. Minority reports in Parliament are rare, but I felt it was necessary because the Committee’s main report failed to confront some uncomfortable realities about abuse from within the Muslim community itself.

As I was writing my report, I asked myself a simple question: would I accept these practices for my own daughter? Would I accept her being pressured to cover her head as a child, pushed into a marriage without full legal protection, expected to resolve family disputes before a religious body, or left without proper protection from practices such as FGM? If the answer is no, then it must be no for every girl in this country.

We know that Muslim women and girls can and do face abuse from outside their communities and this should be challenged wherever it appears. It is completely unacceptable. But protecting women from external hostility must not become an excuse for ignoring harmful practices happening within some communities and family structures.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what the Government’s response to the Committee’s report has done. The most telling aspect of the Government’s response is not what it says, but what it does not. Ministers found plenty of room for warm words on equality, diversity and inclusion. Yet when presented with my specific recommendations on headscarves in schools, unregistered religious marriages, first-cousin marriage, Sharia councils and FGM, they say nothing.

Britain is rightly proud of being a tolerant country committed to freedom of religion. Our tolerance though cannot mean turning a blind eye when women and girls are being disadvantaged and harmed.

Source: Ministers talk equality but stay silent on FGM, forced marriage and Sharia courts – Rebecca Paul