Muslim conference selling different tickets to men and women
A Muslim group is selling male and female tickets to a major conference being held next month.
Organisers confirmed men and women will have to sit in separate areas, despite a tribunal finding another Islamist group guilty of discrimination by not allowing women to sit with men.
The Quest for Success conference is organised by United Muslims of Australia, who confirmed by telephone that members of the public who attend will be separated by gender.
It's similar to the recent discrimination finding against Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which forced a female journalist to sit at the back of a public rally.
"It's just as offensive to split women from men side to side as it is to split black people from white people from side to side," anti-discrimination campaigner Alison Bevege said.
The conference has also been criticised for hosting a UK preacher who has condoned child rape, and speakers who call for women to obey their husbands.
Four decades after Australia legislated to end discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sexuality and gender, segregation is being reintroduced in public venues and it may be entirely legal, because laws may give religious groups a free pass for prejudice.
Section 56D of the Anti Discrimination Act gives religious groups an exemption.
The Department of Justice said:
"It is open to an individual to make a complaint to the Anti Discrimination Board if they believe they have been discriminated against."
"It's appalling, it's a step back for womens' inalienable right to equality," Ms Bevege said.
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