Cambridge academic who sparked student protests appointed to Government’s equality board

A Cambridge don who sparked protests by inviting a “gender critical” feminist author to speak to students has been appointed to the board of the Government’s Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Professor Arif Ahmed, a philosophy lecturer at Gonville and Caius College, will be among experts charged with enforcing equalities legislation.

He rose to prominence for his opposition to Cambridge students who attempted to shut down a talk he organised with Helen Joyce, a gender critical feminist.

Ms Joyce has argued that men and women have been “redefined” by trans activists, with laws and policies “reshaped to privilege self-identified gender identity over biological sex”.

Campus row and protests

The event sparked protests and a campus row, during which the college’s master, Prof Pippa Rogerson, described Ms Joyce’s views as “hateful”.

Students picketed the talk, banging pots and pans and wearing face masks for “privacy”, while the college’s LGBTQ representatives said they were “unanimously disgusted by the platforming of such views”.

Donors threatened to pull funding over Prof Rogerson’s comments during the incident, prompting her to email alumni explaining that there were “difficult and complex discussions” taking place around trans issues.

Ms Joyce said she was “grateful to the young people who turned up and asked probing questions, rather than joining the pot-bangers or curling up in the safe space”.

A government source said Prof Arif was “exactly what the EHRC needs to defend free speech against those who seek to curb it” because he had “taken on vested interests and risked his career to champion free speech”.

Controversial appointment

But his appointment will be controversial among those involved in the debate over “self-ID” – the practice of transgender people defining themselves as a gender that is different to their biological sex.

Last month, Prof Arif announced he would be running a series of free speech classes to educate students on the importance of tolerating views different to their own.

“Whatever subject you are studying, it is an essential part of university education that you understand the need for tolerance of a wide range of views, even ones that you find shocking or offensive,” he told The Telegraph.

“That’s why an education in the basic principles of free speech could be useful for all students.”

Kemi Badenoch, who appointed Prof Ahmed, has said she will seek to enhance freedom of expression from her position as women and equalities minister.

During the Conservative leadership campaign this summer, she pledged to ban gender neutral toilets and warned free speech was “no longer something we can take for granted”.

Prof Ahmed will be joined as a commissioner on the EHRC by Kunle Olulode, the director of the BAME charity Voice4Change.

Sewell Report

Mr Olulode was a member of the Government’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, led by Tony Sewell, which produced a controversial report last year that argued Britain was not an institutionally racist country.

But his charity later released a statement criticising the Sewell Report, arguing that it “does not give enough to show its understanding of institutional or structural discrimination”.

“Evidence in sections, that assertive conclusions are based on, is selective,” a statement said.

Both Prof Ahmed and Mr Olulode will serve four year terms on the EHRC, which is chaired by Baroness Falkner.

The independent body monitors human rights in the UK across nine protected characteristics: age, disability, sex, race, religion and belief, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, sexual orientation and gender reassignment.

Ms Badenoch said: “Under Baroness Falkner, the EHRC is performing a vital national service as an impartial regulator enforcing anti-discrimination legislation and defending human rights.

“These new appointments will provide the Commission with the skills and expertise it needs to make a positive impact on lives across Britain.”