Lawrence Krauss Opposes Religious Kooks On Sex Segregation

Link (via Reddit)

Quote from one of the kooks:

iERA spokesman Saleem Chagtai insisted men and women ‘naturally’ separate in ‘normal Islamic events’. He said: ‘There were a number of ladies who used their free will and didn’t want to sit with the opposite sex.’

Yeah, here's the thing, sparky. Nobody's objecting to people sitting where they want. (Well...I am inclined to think that not wanting to sit next to somebody because of his/her sex is on par with not wanting to sit next to a person because of his/her race...but we can put that on the back burner for now...) What Krauss objected to was the enforcement of segregation by sex.

And this point really can't be made enough: if the natural tendency to separate into groups by sex were as strong as such people think it is, then they wouldn't need to enforce it. Rather, it's a weak tendency at best.

And a really happy ending: UCL kicked iERA off campus.