COPENHAGEN, Denmark — It is “disgusting” if girls at a private Islamic school in Stockholm are directed to the back door of a school bus while boys use the front door, as claimed by a television documentary, Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said Tuesday.
“It does not belong in Sweden” to have primary schools dividing children, aged between 6 and 10, by gender, Lofven said.
In Sweden “we take the bus together whether you are a girl or a boy, a woman or a man,” Lofven said. “This suggests that we have more to tackle when it comes to segregation.”
The issue was highlighted by the Kalla Fakta, or “Cold Facts,” program on Sweden’s TV4 channel. The documentary was aired Tuesday evening.
Al-Azhar school head master Roger Lindquist told the Newspapers’ Telegram Bureau, a Swedish news agency, that the school management was not aware of the division.
The publicly funded and privately managed school drew attention last year because it has gender-segregated gym classes. Sweden’s education minister, Gustav Fridolin, said in February that he would ban gender-divided classes. The ban has not been implemented yet.