University classes will be separated based on gender starting in September, the Iranian Parliament’s Education and Research commission announced.
Khabar-on-line reports that commission member Ali Karimi Firouzjayi said: “The science minister has announced that during the summer, when universities are closed, there will be a plan to determine how much gender separation the universities can accommodate, and those universities that have the capacity will begin to implement it in September.”
He added: “We must make every effort to reduce contact between male and female students, and this is a policy that has been called for by families, the parliament, the clergy as well as the supporters of the regime and religious leaders.”
Karimi Firouzjayi added that gender separation has been a serious topic on the Education Ministry agenda for more than a year. In addition to the separation of classes, Parliament is willing to fund and legislate the building of single-sex universities.
He also spoke in favour of single-sex cafeterias and uniforms for students.
In the past two years, the Islamic Republic has repeatedly announced plans to overhaul higher education in order to make it more compatible with Islamic principles. Fundamental changes in the humanities curricula, the dismissal of professors and single-sex classes are among the initiatives taken by the Science Ministry.
