A Japanese medical school deliberately cut women’s entrance test scores for several years, a panel of lawyers hired by the school to investigate the issue said on Tuesday, calling it a “very serious” instance of discrimination.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made a priority of creating a society “where women can shine”, but women in Japan still face an uphill battle in employment and face hurdles returning to work after childbirth, which contributes to a falling birthrate.

The alterations were uncovered in an internal investigation of a graft accusation this spring regarding the entrance exam for Tokyo Medical University, sparking protests and widespread anger following media reports last week.

Lawyers investigating bribery accusations in the admission of the son of a senior education ministry official said they concluded that his score and that of several other men were boosted “unfairly” – some by as much as 49 points.

They also concluded that scores were manipulated to give men more points than women and thus hold down the number of women admitted.

“This incident is really regrettable – by deceptive recruitment procedures, they sought to delude the test takers, their families, school officials and society as a whole,” lawyer Kenji Nakai told a news conference.

“Factors suggesting very serious discrimination against women was also part of it,” added Nakai, one of the external lawyers hired by the university to investigate the incident.

The investigation showed the scores of men – including those reappearing after failing once or twice – were raised a certain number of points. Those of all women, and men who had failed the test at least three times, were not, however.

The lawyers said they did not know how many women had been affected, but it appeared that women’s test scores had been affected going back at least a decade.

Medical school authorities have called a news conference for 5 p.m. No immediate comment was available from the government or the education ministry official who figures in the case.

Entrance exam discrimination against women was “absolutely unacceptable”, Education Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters last week, however.

Reports of the incident appeared at the start of August, setting off a furore in Japan, spurring women to recount their own experiences of discrimination on social media with the hashtag, “It’s okay to be angry about sexism.”

Some referred to the potential costs exacted in a rapidly ageing society.

“I’m 29 and will probably never get married,” said one poster.

“Women are pitied if they don’t, but Japanese women who are married and working and have kids end up sleeping less than anybody in the world. To now hear that even our skills are suppressed makes me shake with rage.”

Another said,”I ignored my parents, who said women don’t belong in academia, and got into the best university in Japan. But in job interviews I’m told ‘If you were a man, we’d hire you right away.’

“My enemy wasn’t my parents, but all society itself.”

Israel’s new “nation-state” law has provoked anger among members of its most integrated minority, the Druze, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek corrective legislation.

Netanyahu has defended the law, which declares that only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country, from fierce criticism at home and abroad.

But his conservative government appears to have been blindsided by the response from the Druze community, even though parliament passed the law on July 19 after years of heated debate in the Knesset.

In a further effort to calm tensions, Netanyahu convened a meeting with Druze community leaders in Tel Aviv late on Thursday but it was cut short because one of the participants, a retired senior military officer, had harshly criticised the legislation, Israeli media reported.

At a separate event in northern Israel, a Druze man had to be forcibly removed by police after he confronted and heckled one of the law’s main proponents, lawmaker Avi Dichter of Netanyahu’s Likud party who had started giving a speech.

Leaders of Israel’s main Arab minority denounced the law while Turkey called it racist and the European Union expressed concern. Netanyahu took this in his stride, saying it was needed to fend off Palestinian challenges to Jewish self-determination.

But criticism from Druze, who are also Arabs and practise an offshoot of Islam, has had more effect even though they make up only 1.3 percent of Israel’s citizenry.

“We see it as a discriminatory law which doesn’t give expression to our citizenship,” said Rafik Halabi, one of a delegation of Druze leaders who met Netanyahu.

“We told the prime minister unequivocally … we won’t be able to live in a state where part of its population, especially such a loyal and good population, feels excluded,” he said, after the delegation also met President Reuven Rivlin.

Druze communities are scattered around the region, including in Syria and Lebanon. In Israel, Druze men are drafted by the military unlike other Arab minorities, who often identify as Palestinian. Druze are also active in mainstream governance and media in Israel.

The law, which downgrades Arabic from an official language on a par with Hebrew and deems only Jewish settlement as a national priority, has prompted announcements by several Druze that they would no longer serve in uniform. Israel’s top general, Gadi Eizenkot, responded with a call not to politicise the military.

Netanyahu hastily set up a committee including ministers, officials and Druze community leaders to propose new legislation that will address their grievances and ease tensions. These changes appear designed to accommodate the Druze primarily, and not the much larger Israeli Arab minority.

“The team reached an historic outline that constitutes a revolution in the legal status of minority community members who serve in the security forces, particularly the Druze community,” Netanyahu’s media adviser said in a statement.

Akram Hasson, a Druze member of the coalition party Kulanu, said the work would take time. “There is still a long way to go,” he told Israel Radio.

DRUZE DIVIDED

Druze leaders are divided over whether the proposals will calm the tensions. A large rally by the Druze and their supporters is planned at a main Tel Aviv plaza on Saturday.

Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, one of the committee members, said legislation would be presented when parliament returns for its winter session in mid October.

“To my delight, the Druze community has accepted the outline. We have agreed to work on the details and bring a set proposal to a vote,” he told the Ynet web site.

This would enshrine the Druze’s special status within Israeli society, recognise their service to the state and boost funding for their towns, villages and community institutions.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the ultranationalist Jewish Home party also praised the Druze.

“The Druze community does not have to prove to anybody its loyalty to the state of Israel or the strength of the bond between us. Seventy years of statehood prove this beyond any doubt,” he wrote on Facebook.

Druze opposition lawmaker Salah Saed of the Zionist Union said he was not sure the crisis had been averted. “I have read the new proposal and I can live with it, but the problem is that I don’t believe the prime minister,” Saed said, fearing Israel could face early elections before the legislation is finalised.

Elections are set for November 2019.

“(Netanyahu) is stringing us along… We will not play into the hands of this government,” Saed added.

Muslims in Dublin continue to face hostility and discrimination, according to a study.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland found that anti-Muslim hostility manifested in the workplace, in schools and in sections of the media.

Some young female Muslims reported being unable to wear the hijab in the classroom. A broader policy gap on school uniform means some face exclusion. Others do not. Teachers are failing to challenge anti-Muslim racism in some schools. One Muslim mother had to send her son to private school because the primary school would not accept a non-Catholic. In spite of equality legislation, a loophole allows schools to reject other faiths if it ‘undermines’ their ethos. This gateway to discrimination is nothing new in a country where the Catholic church runs more than 90 per cent of state schools. Non-Catholic teachers face similar discrimination.

Two students had experienced anti-Muslim abuse in the classroom. The school, however, dismissed their complaints. Some students recalled the abuse they had received from teachers. In one example, a teacher had asked a student if the hijab had limited her hearing.

The prejudice experienced by some Muslims in Dublin mirrors that in Britain. Hostility became exhausting in its day-to-day interactions. One Muslim woman compared her experiences to a ‘battle’ when she stepped out of her home. She left expecting to face hostility due to her hijab. Another woman interviewed, who wears the niqab, recalled how an elderly woman asked ‘how the **** can you see?” Men and women recalled slurs that referenced bin Laden and terrorism.

Suspicion also turned into racial profiling from security guards and shop staff.

Others spoke of the violence they had experienced. Rabia spoke of a time a drunk man attempted to assault her. As she walked down a street she heard him shout “Go back to your own country!! You muzzie!”The man had then thrown a glass bottle that shattered in front of her.

Sadia spoke of how a daughter of a friend had her hijab pulled by other children on a bus. In tears, the daughter had called her parents, asking to never wear the hijab again.

This perception gap follows a similar logic: that wearing Islamic clothing makes individuals non-Irish. And helps to frame abuse in a racialised context.

Islamic institutions and private property have experienced vandalism. A Muslim family returned home to find someone had broken in and daubed their walls with the words ‘terrorist’ and ‘get out’.

Nor did the report find a single category of perpetrator. Often abusive individuals came from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds, age and genders. This suggests that Islamophobia sits at a deeper level. And this latency surfaces in relation to acts of terrorism abroad when in public spaces. One key recommendation of the report is to challenge this education gap in society.

Discrimination in the workplace came down to religious identity and name. Some in the report spoke of tensions with colleagues when it came to discussions about ISIS. Or raised stereotypical questions about repression if women wore Islamic clothing.

The report also touched on the securitisation approach to Muslims when travelling at airports.

If Islamophobia operates at a deeper and more latent level, who is to blame? Voices in the report criticised the Irish media. One central criticism focused on the insensitivity of coverage when discussing ISIS. Not all coverage proved negative; but perception can cloud all. One accusation focused on how some media ignored Muslim organisations condemned acts of terrorism. Others highlighted how it mythologised communities as drawn to violence. It presented Muslim men as ‘hyper-patriarchial’. And Muslim women proved passive and ‘lacking in intellect’.

Complex and difficult issues must not be swept under the carpet…our Islamophobia research #EqualIreland RT pic.twitter.com/qhBHgNe2xU

— Immigrant Council.ie (@immigrationIRL) February 22, 2016

Despite some anxieties, fears, and worries about identity. Many Muslims remain proud of their national identity, even when some are told they do not belong in Ireland.

Ireland recently saw the rise of its own Pegida chapter. Kilkenny, in southeast Ireland, had experienced its own Britain First-inspired ‘mosque invasion’. A group of individuals from anti-Islam Ireland had arrived unannounced and harassed an imam.

The report makes ten recommendations: including media training and the need for civil society groups to support Muslim communities and lobby for improved hate crime legislation. It also serves to remind others that for some Muslims, Islamophobia remains a lived experience. Ireland is home to around 65,000 Muslims.

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