Religious Accommodation Versus Gender Equality

Three separate cases show the need to find common ground when reconciling religious accommodation with gender equality.  In London, England, a female student challenged a university's policy of allowing the voluntary separation of men and women during religious services held on campus.  She argued:  "Once you allow one religious group to impose its discriminatory values, it's like a slippery slope, and others will follow."  Her case is under review.

At a Canadian university, a student asked a professor to exempt him from a group project that would have required him to work with female classmates.  The professor said no but the Dean chastised him for failure to accommodate religious beliefs.

In the third case, a martial arts instructor in Nova Scotia, Canada divided his class along gender lines at the request of a male student.  A female student complained but even the provincial Human Rights Commission supported the instructor's decision.

These cases underscore the confusion and lack of common ground when trying to reconcile religious freedom with gender equality.  But can we agree on any principles that can at least be used to begin that process of reconciliation in the real world?  Yes.  The centuries-old principle of separation of church and state can be applied to all these cases if we add some common sense.  In the first case, the complainant argued that a state-run university should not allow even voluntary separation of the sexes.  But it was for a religious service, why should the location matter?  The service doesn't interfere with the campus's secular activities and it doesn't push its beliefs on the other students.  But in the second case, discriminating against female students in a secular classroom simply to exempt a male from their presence is wrong.  And  the third case is even more bizarre.  The martial arts class was secular.  All the instructor had to do was pair the male student with another male. 
Bingo!  Accommodation!  What was the Human Rights Coommission thinking?

We need more common sense in these types of cases and a consensus on simple, clear principles.  Keep church and state separate, allow people to practice their beliefs in religious settings and don't allow anyone to push his/her values on anyone else.