Take action: Hamza, IERA & the Segregation Tour - Next stop is KCL
Folks, after Saturday's debacle at UCL written about here in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/mar/10/ucl-debate-segregating-seating-genderThe IERA circus is rolling on to KCL TONIGHT. Please please please take a few mins to contact the relevant people to ensure they know what they're dealing with. A template letter is provided courtesy of Chris Moos of LSE Atheists, Humanists, Secularists and Ex-Muslims. Contact details are all provided at the bottom of this post. Get writing people!
Dear Ms Epstein,
Dear Ms Brown,
I am writing you to inform you of a potential breach of King's College's Equality and Diversity policy at an event tonight, March 11th on “The Existence of God". The speaker at this event will be Hamza Tzortzis, a speaker who has openly advocated homophobic and anti-democratic views in the past.
This talk at King's College is part of his Islamic Awareness Tour 2013, with its last event held this Saturday 9th, where Tzortzis and his organisation iERA held a debate on "Islam or Atheism: The Big Debate" at UCL. Although Tzortzi's organisation had been warned before by UCL that gender segregation could only be voluntary as not to violate UCL's Equality and Diversity policy, the organiser tried to physically enforce a gender segregated seating order on the audience. I find it is my responsibility to inform you that it is highly likely that this organisation will attempt to enforce a gender segregated seating order again at King's College tonight, leading to a violation of the King's College Equality and Diversity policy.
In your evaluation of the matter, please consider how the event of this weekend led to a violation of UCL's Equality and Diversity policy:
1) The organisers clearly and repeatedly violated UCL's Equality and Diversity policy. Not only did they enforce gender segregation, but five security guards of the organiser intimidated and attempted to physically remove audience members who refused to comply, falsely claiming that these attendees had been disruptive. Both male and female audience members felt intimidated by the actions of the organiser's security guards.
Only after Professor Krauss, the atheist debater, threatened trice to leave the debate if the organisers should continue to enforce gender segregation (follow this link:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151324574843231 ), the organisers cleared one row of the women's area and allowed the male attendees to sit there, thereby maintaining forced gender segregation. Notably, the women who were sitting in that row were not asked by the security guards whether they would feel comfortable with a man sitting next to them, or whether they would be willing to move. Forced gender segregation was thus maintained.
2) Separate entrances were in place for women and men, although ‘couples’ were allowed to enter via the men’s door. Several members of the organiser's security team directed people to stand in either the male or female queue based on their sex, both at the entrance to the building and the lecture theatre. Signs pointing to "men" and "women" areas were in place. There were no signs for a mixed seating area, and attendees were guided by the guards to either the "female" or "male" area. Only attendees who insisted not to be separated were guided towards a "mixed" area, which only comprised two rows.
3) A woman who identified herself as a Chemistry teacher at UCL said the segregation had been agreed with UCL. This person repeatedly refused two male attendees access to the "women's" seating area. When asked if the event was segregated another security guard said: “It’s slightly segregated.”
Having personally attended this event, I cannot tell you how disappointed I and many other attendees are that UCL did not live up to its promise to make sure that its Equality and Diversity policy was enforced and that the event was inclusive for all attendees. Overall, the atmosphere of the event was intimidating for both male and female attendees. Attendees were shocked to see that although concerns about the plans to enforce gender segregation had been raised before with UCL, the organisers were able to violate UCL's Equality and Diversity policy, discriminating attendees by their apparent gender and creating a threatening and divisive atmosphere that was not inclusive to all attendees.
I would urge to look into the matter and come back to me as soon as possible in order to prevent a similar breach of King's College Equality and Diversity policy tonight.
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards,
Chris Moos
debbie.epstein@kcl.ac.uk
sandra.brown@kcl.ac.uk
Debbie Epstein
Equalities Manager
Sandra Brown
Equalities Officer
Principal
Professor Richard Trainor KBE, MA DPhil FRHistS AcSS FKC
Email: principal@kcl.ac.uk
Peter Garrod
peter.garrod@kcl.ac.uk
Director of Governance & Legal Affairs Management
Telephone: 020 7848 3361
governance@kcl.ac.uk
Governance & Legal Affairs
aniello.genovese@kcl.ac.uk
Room bookings
James.1.brown@kcl.ac.uk
Room bookings
Alison Denyer Director of Public Relations
0207 848 3073 alison.denyer@kcl.ac.uk
Higher education, corporate and crisis communications
Louise Pratt Public Relations and Communications Manager
0207 848 5378 louise.a.pratt@kcl.ac.uk
Institute of Psychiatry
counselling@kcl.ac.uk
welfare@kcl.ac.uk
Student Adviser
becky.robinson@kcl.ac.uk
Topic: Take action: IERA & the Segregation Tour - Next stop is KCL