Muslim women to be taught English in drive to combat 'backwards attitudes'

Muslim women are to be taught English as part of the drive
PA
Sebastian Mann18 January 2016
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David Cameron today pledged to confront the “backward attitudes” of a minority of Muslim men who exert “damaging control” over women in their families.

The Prime Minister called for an end to “passive tolerance” as he announced that tens of thousands of Muslim women unable to speak English are to be given the chance to learn the language as part of a new government integration drive.

Writing in The Times, Mr Cameron said: “In this country, women and girls are free to choose how they live, how they dress and who they love.

“It’s our values that make this country what it is, and it’s only by standing up for them assertively that they will endure. In Britain, men are not frightened of women’s success; it is celebrated proudly.

“So we must take on the minority of men who perpetuate these backward attitudes and exert such damaging control over their wives, sisters and daughters. And we must never again allow passive tolerance to prevent us from telling the hard truths.”

The government estimates that there are 190,000 Muslim women in England who speak little or no English.

The new English language scheme will be aimed at reaching the most isolated women and will be targeted to specific communities based on the ongoing review into segregation being carried out by Louise Casey, the head of the Government's Troubled Families unit.

At the same time, the Prime Minister emphasised that the Government could not build a more integrated society on its own and that it was up to migrants to improve their English language skills if they wanted extend their stay in the UK or apply for citizenship.

The latest move comes amid continued concern about the numbers of Britons attempting to travel to Syria to join Islamic State.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond disclosed last week that 600 Britons had been caught trying to reach Syria to fight with IS or other jihadist groups in the country's bloody civil war since 2012.

Additional reporting by PA

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