Muslim women 'struggling to integrate' in UK

Britain has been warned today it is becoming more divided as diversity increases.

Dame Louise Casey, the government's immigration adviser, claimed that successive governments had failed to help growing numbers of immigrants to integrate.

She said her investigation into the issue, the Casey Review, would be difficult to take for Muslim communities in particular - where poor English skills and the dominance of men are holding women back.

The report showed that 16% of Britain's Muslim population cannot speak English well, or at all.

Further figures show 22% of Muslim women have poor English skills, while 57% of Pakistani and Bangladeshi women don't work.

Dame Louise, speaking to ITV News in Sparkhill, Birmingham, argued that reasons behind so many Muslim women being out of work may partly be cultural.

"We have some women living in this country who don't understand what their rights are - often because they don't speak English, or that they don't understand what the rules are", Dame Louise said.

"To be blunt, a lot of the men are quite happy to keep them that way".

Aysha Iqbal, of Sparkhill's Women's Support Network, agreed, saying there were "certain barriers" holding back Muslim women.