Government Presses to Segregate Sexes

While the Iranian government has been focusing on segregating university students on sexual lines since Ahmadinejad’s reelection, Iran’s minister of Science Kamran Daneshjoo stated on Friday, “We shall segregate students on sexual lines as the Islamic worldview requires.”

Speaking to reporters, Daneshjoo said, “We require fields that especially for women and others that are specially for men, which is something that exists through the world and is positive and good.”

These remarks about segregating students at the country’s universities come after the remarks that former Majlis speaker Haddad Adel, a supporter of Ahmadinejad and a close associate of ayatollah Khamenei, made when Daneshjoo came to office when he said, “Islamization of universities is a long awaited task for the new minister of science and we hope to accomplish soon with the help of theology centers around the country and the supreme council of the cultural revolution.”

Sexual Segregation Ahmadinejad Style

Since Ahmadinejad came to office, the discussion of sexual segregation has been on the agenda of many theology centers and at the national level. The creation of single-sex hospitals, constructing single-sex parks, separating offices for men and women, separating entrances to buildings for men and women at universities, elimination of men teachers in all-girls schools, are examples of many such acts implemented by this administration.

The first act in this sphere was when the minister of culture and Islamic guidance Mohammad Hossein Saffar Herandi issued a circular to his deputies circular in the summer of 2005 to implement this segregation goal and banned the presence of women in after-working hours in the ministry offices. This was soon extended to other ministries including the Social Services Organization.

In 2006, the ministry of education initiated a program to eliminate men from women high-schools which was not fully implemented because of the shortage of teachers, but experts have said that the goal is still on the table.

Following this trend, since 2006 the ministry of science and health sciences began implementing a plan to segregate the entrance gates to universities for men and women students which continued with the segregation of some classrooms. Limiting the number of quotas for women in the national university entrance exams is another government program measure in this light.