‘Segregation a growing problem in Britain’, says government review

Segregation is a growing problem in some areas of Britain, according to a government review.

High levels of misogyny and patriarchy in some communities are widening inequality, said Dame Louise Casey.

She said her report would make difficult reading for some Muslim communities, but added that the country had to face up to “uncomfortable” problems.

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She reported that Britain is becoming more divided as it becomes more diverse, and said women were the subject of “abuse and unequal treatment” in some communities in the name of cultural or religious values.

Communities secretary Sajid Javid said he would study the report’s findings closely, but the Ramadhan Foundation condemned the study as “inflammatory”.

Dame Louise said the UK could “no longer duck difficult issues” and highlighted the problems some areas had faced because of the pace and scale of immigration.

The review recommends that schoolchildren are taught “British values” of tolerance, democracy and respect to help bind communities together amid growing “ethnic segregation”.

It also suggested that immigrants who want to settle in Britain should swear an “integration oath”.

Dame Louise told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “I, only last Thursday, was in a community where women who have lived here for years are not allowed out of their house without their men’s permission.

“Inequality within certain communities in these highly segregated areas is getting worse, not better.”

She said she was “tired” of the debate around Muslim women wearing the veil, saying people should be allowed to dress how they wanted.

However, she added: “Do I think police officers or midwives should be fully veiled? No, I don’t. I want to see their faces – most of us do.

“At the end of the day it is not the women in those communities that I have a problem with, it is the men in those communities.

“It is the misogyny and the patriarchy that has to come to an end.”

Mr Javid said: “While it’s right that we celebrate the positive contribution that diverse groups make to British life, we also need to continue making sure that nobody is excluded from it or left behind.

“To do that, we need to take a serious look at the facts and must not shy away from the challenges we face.”

But Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, condemned the report as “inflammatory, divisive, pandering to the agenda of the far right”.

He said: “We are saddened that once again British Muslims have become a political football which is bashed from time to time without any regard for the impact this has on individuals who then are subjected to threats and violence.”