Students demonstrate against 'gender apartheid' against Universities UK Universities UK says 132 members can allow men and women to sit apart Protesters say it 'violates women's rights' and takes Britain 'backwards' Minority of Muslim groups have directed men and women to sit separately Universities can allow men and women to be segregated if religious extremists demand it for their debates or lectures, official guidance revealed today. The decision has sparked protests with campaigners calling it 'gender apartheid'. In the past year there have been a small number of Muslim groups who forced men and women to sit apart when they spoke at British universities. Anger: Protesters hold up placards rejecting 'gender apartheid' outside the headquarters of Universities Uk in London last night after their guidelines agreed that women and men can be segregated Anger: The segregation by sex at university talks by visiting speakers has been called discrimination and those concerned say decision will take Britain backwards Having considered the issue Universities UK says its 132 members should be allowed to agree to these demands but campaigners say it violates women's rights. Campaigner Ahlam Akram told the BBC's Today programme: 'I stand firmly against this segregation. It's a decision that is going to take us backwards. 'It is a violation of women's freedom to sit wherever they want. Universities are the place for planting freedom of thinking and freedom of speech. PHD student Erin Marie Saltman told Channel Four News: 'This is a bigger issue of racism of lower expectations, of avoidance. There is a fear of offending the Muslim community but there are a lot of modern Muslims that would never allow gender segregation. In May a Muslim group was banned from a university after segregating men and women during a debate. Visitors to the event at University College London were told to use men's or women's entrances by the Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA), who also told women to sit at the back, while men and couples were sent to the front. Action: University College London has banned one Muslim group after it found one group had demanded gender segregation Greek Islamic convert Hamza Andreas Tzortzis was a speaker at the debate at UCL, his spokesman said earlier this year that segregation was informal A month earlier Leicester University spoke of its concerns over photos showing hand-written signs requesting that male and female students sit in separate areas at a public talk by the university's Islamic Society. The meeting - which discussed God's existence - was addressed by Islamic speaker Hamza Tzortzis, who speaks at various campuses and was involved in controversy at another university last month. Four sheets of paper attached to an entrance door with the words "brothers" and "sisters" and arrows pointing in opposite directions, The University of Leicester Islamic Society's website also said in a separate notice that meetings are open to the public, but it has "segregated seating for brothers and sisters at all co-attended events." A spokesman for Mr Tzortzis's group said genders were sometimes informally segregated at events. Worries: Leicester University spoke of its concerns over photos showing hand-written signs requesting that male and female students sat in separate areas at a public talk by the university's Islamic Society Universities UK said today that they had taken legal advice on the issue. A spokesman said: 'The guidance does not promote gender segregation. It includes a hypothetical case study involving an external speaker talking about his orthodox religious faith who had requested segregated seating areas for men and women. The case study considered the facts, the relevant law and the questions that the university should ask, and concluded that if neither women nor men were disadvantaged and a non-segregated seating area also provided, a university could decide it is appropriate to agree to the request.