David Cameron was today urged to ban “discriminatory’ sharia courts from hearing divorce and other family cases as women’s rights groups warned of growing oppression by “fundamentalist forces” in Britain.
The campaigners said that action was needed because “unaccountable and arbitrary” religious courts were treating large of Muslim women as second class citizens.
They added that women were being exposed to unfair treatment, cruelty and sometimes danger as a result and “dragged into living out a fundamentalist vision of Islam” that was contrary to equality.
The groups, who were today presenting a petition at 10 Downing Street setting out their demands for reform, said the Prime Minister should respond by ensuring the “separation of religion and law” and by holding an inquiry into the discriminatory nature of Sharia and other religious courts. [Evening Standard] Read more
