Fitzpatrick: We’ve sleep-walked into Arabian practices

Dear Ed, “THE practice of segregating sexes at events doesn’t harm social cohesion.” Doesn’t it?

Dear Ed,

"THE practice of segregating sexes at events doesn't harm social cohesion." Doesn't it? (Advertiser Website Letters, August 20). By definition, 'segregation' does harm social cohesion.

Take Apartheid, for example. That can hardly be said to have cemented the fabric of South African society for all the years of its existence-unless yours is the view of a South African Boer!

Also, see the Jim Crow Laws in the United States and it's legacy.

If Jim Fitzpatrick sees something wrong in segregation, it is to be applauded. Too much is swept under the carpet in the name of 'culture'. Cultural traditions are fine-until they make one group of people less than another group.

Any segregation, unless it is two groups of people who just cannot live alongside each other without harming or killing each other, is wrong.

Credit to MP Jim Fitzpatrick for taking the stand he has and for bringing this 'cultural' wrong to the fore.

Lee Daly

Cornwall Street, Stepney