Sweden's PM outraged by "despicable" segregation of boys and girls on school bus trip

A Muslim school in Sweden has been criticised after a TV documentary showed it apparently segregating boys and girls on a bus trip.

The pupils, aged between six and 10, were shown separated on the bus and during sports lessons.

The images prompted nationwide outrage and even the Prime Minister has intervened.

Stefan Lofven told reporters that the segregation was “despicable”.

“This doesn’t belong in Sweden,” he said. “We take the bus together here, regardless if you’re a girl or a boy, woman or a man.”

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The issue came to light after a Swedish broadcaster – TV4 – filmed secret footage of the privately-run Al-Azhar Primary School, which is located in a Stockholm suburb called Vallingby, for part of a documentary.

The footage showed boys entering the bus from the front and the girls from the back.

Al-Azhar had argued that mixed sports courses would stop some parents from sending their children to the school. However it did not carry out gender-segregated activities.

“I don’t know why it still turned out that way,” Roger Lindquist told TT news agency.

But on its website, thew school states that “boys and girls have separate courses in swimming and sports”.

Sweden’s education minister has been told to contact the school and said there was a “duty” to stop any segregation.

The issue of integration by Sweden’s minority communities has become an issue in recent years.

Earlier this year US president Donald Trump claimed immigration in Sweden was not working.

Recently there were riots in a predominantly immigrant suburb of Stockholm, after Trump made his remarks.