Rotterdam City Council Reserved Separate Seating Area for Women
Dutch Minister of Integration Klink thinks it is not acceptable that the City of Rotterdam reserved separate “women’s seats” for the performance of Moroccan stand-up comedian Salaheddine. According to the Minister, the action is a violation of the Equal Treatment Act.
With the separate seating initiative, the Zuidplein district of Rotterdam wanted to attract more Muslim women to the theater.
The City council says that “According to our Western values the freedom of people to live their own lives according to their own beliefs is an important good.”
Although many young Islamic women attended the performance–three quarters of the audience was female–that evening the possibility to sit “separately” was left unused.
The original article is in Dutch.