Sweden’s education minister has called for tougher laws preventing gender segregation after a Muslim school was given the all-clear to run separate gym classes for boys and girls.
All four centre-right parties in the opposition Alliance criticized the national school inspectorate's decision, and the education minister, Gustav Fridolin, said he shared their concern.
Separating boys and girls in primary school and lower secondary school “can not be a way of working with gender equality,” he told TV4 Nyheterna.
The minister said he would instruct officials on Monday to examine how to make changes to the existing legislation.
Nina Da Mata, a sports teacher at the Al-Azhar school, defended the policy and said she would teach in the same way in a non-Muslim school.
“The girls feel more secure when they are in a group of the their own,” she told Mivida, the Swedish Teachers Union newspaper. [The Local] Read more
