Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to make a submission to the Women and Equalities Committee's inquiry on gendered Islamophobia.

We welcome the Committee's inquiry on this topic and ministers will take a keen interest in its findings.

The Government recognises that religious hatred is not specific to one place and can manifest in varying areas, such as online spaces and in public and educational settings. Certain characteristics, for example gender, sexuality and race, can often compound individual’s experiences of religious hatred.

British Muslim women are pivotal to our wider communities. They are often the driving force behind interfaith and community initiatives, yet they face specific challenges, with discrimination and intolerance often directed at them.

The Government has established a new working group to provide government with a definition of Anti-Muslim Hatred/Islamophobia. This work will consider views from a cross-section of society, including those of Muslim women, to improve understanding of unacceptable treatment and prejudice against Muslim communities, supporting wider and ongoing government-led efforts to tackle religiously motivated hate crime and foster cohesion.