Iranian gender restrictions in education

Iranian gender restrictions in education are sometimes implied by individual Iranian universities by making some fields available only to men or women. The most popular of such was 2012 proposal of course restrictions which sparked internal and international controversy.

Overview

Main article: Higher education in Iran

As of 2006, women accounted for over half of university students in Iran and 70% of Iran's science and engineering students. In 2012, according to the UNESCO data, 2,191,409 out of 4,404,614 students in tertiary education were females, thus making fifth largest female enrollment after China, India, USA and Brazil. In engineering fields Iranian female enrollment ranked as first in the World, in science fields second (after USA).

2011 segregation attempt

In early 2011, several Iranian universities announced that next academic year many first-year classes would be offered separately for men and women. Kamran Daneshjoo, minister of science, said university administrators have been trying to implement directives from the Cultural Revolution Council to "protect Islamic dignity and morals". Proposition for segregating male and female students by few universities was halted in July by order of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

2012 proposal of course ban

In early August 2012 it was reported that 36 universities in Iran have proposed cutting 77 fields of study from the female curriculum, making them male-only fields. Such courses include empirical sciences, the human sciences, the arts and foreign languages. Proposal has been defended by Jalal Tabatabai, university testing deputy, who rejected the gender discrimination at universities and said "Because of some considerations, it is possible that through their annual tests certain universities may admit only men or women to certain academic fields, but this does not mean that student admission to these fields is restricted to a specific gender because other universities follow their own admission policies and applicants can apply to the same fields in other universities". He added "The need to admit students to different fields is determined by universities and in principle this decision is made on the basis of the needs and necessities of society. Therefore, some fields in some years are only available to men or women".

Specific universities gave various arguments in favor: Oil Industry University claimed the "lack of employer demand", and Isfahan University stated that from those that obtained mining engineering degrees "98% of female graduates don't work in this area". Abolfazl Hassani, director general for the spread of education at the Ministry of science, research and technology, initially also supported idea with explanation: "Universities draw up plans for the future of higher education in the provinces and other parts of the country on the basis of the results they obtain from the entrance exams and the state of higher education in the past. They also consider their capacity and the needs of society". He added "Some fields are not very suitable for women’s nature such as agricultural machinery or mining, partly because of the hard work involved in them. Past experience shows that women do not become professionally active in these fields after they are admitted to these subjects and even after they graduate. This results in unemployment of graduates". Later, Hassani has changed his position: "Letters have been sent to the heads of these universities to enquire about the reasons for their decision. This is because if a university decides to admit only men or women to specific academic programs, it must first establish the necessary infrastructure for such a gender separation". Responses to the new restrictions have been so extensive inside Iran that even the Ministry of Education’s academic evaluation organization has taken a position against.

Media manipulations

Main article: Anti-Iranian sentiment

Following proposal, series of sensationalist inflammatory and misleading headlines like Iran Bans Women From Universities or Iran Bans Women from College Courses were published in Western mainstream media. Robert Tait, The Telegraph's Middle East correspondent based in Jerusalem (Israel), claimed that "women in Iran will be hereto banned from universities because of the worries of senior clerics". It was also falsely claimed "announcement of course ban" was made by Iran's government or Ministry of Science, Research and Technology who actually criticized proposal, while it was actually individual university-level proposal.

Responses

Iran

• Seyed Abolfazl Hassani, a senior Iranian education official, stated in defense of the announcement that, "Some fields are not very suitable for women’s nature, such as agricultural machinery or mining, partly because of the hard work involved in them."

• The policy change was criticized by some Iranian parliamentarians, such as Mohammad-Mehdi Zahedi, head of the Iranian parliament’s education and research committee. However, Kamran Daneshjoo, the science and higher education minister, gave a "guarded response" to the news, saying that the universities would have to state a reason, but also supported the change by explaining that "90% of degrees remain open to both sexes and that single-gender courses were needed to create 'balance'." Zahedi said in response that Daneshjoo is "expected to present himself to parliament to explain this policy".

• Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi wrote to the United Nations in protest of the restrictions, stating that the Iranian government is "trying to limit the active presence of women in society". She has asked for the issue to be added to "Iran's human rights dossier". The letter was then forwarded to UN special rapporteur for Iran Ahmad Shaheed and to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay.

International

• The US State Department Spokesperson, Victoria Nuland, said that: "This decision represents a significant regression for women in Iran, who have outnumbered men in universities for over a decade, and will further restrict the ability of Iranian women to find employment." The State Department went on to release a statement urging Iran to "protect women’s rights" and to uphold its "own laws and international obligations which guarantee non-discrimination in all areas of life".

• In a statement to the journal Science, UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky explained that, while on his trip to Iran for the Non-Aligned Movement meeting, Ban Ki-Moon said in a speech that Tehran should focus on the "need for greater access for women in Iran to a broader range of professions and fields of study".

• On 22 September 2012, Human Rights Watch urged Iran to reverse the new policy, claiming that such restrictions are a violation of the international right to education for everyone without discrimination.

Academics

• In a press release on September 5th, the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies stated that, "To impose, in the 21st century, such restrictions on the higher education of Iranian women … is appalling."

• Pakistani author and journalist Bina Shah in The Express Tribune compared the universities' policy change as being the hallmark of a patriarchal system, and that support of patriarchal attitudes and negative actions toward women should be seen as a "mental illness". In addition, she stated that feminism should be seen as a "way of encouraging and empowering women to rise and stand side-by-side with men as their partners, helpmates and friends."

• Haleh Esfandiari, Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, suggested in a Chronicle of Higher Education article that women may now turn to the internet to receive online educations, as the women of Iran have shown "again and again they can come up with new ways of pursuing their goals".

• In The Journal of Turkish Weekly, Betül Durmus considered how the change in university policy is a representation of the sexual division of labor and how it is a discriminatory ideology that seeks to "enslave" women, while idly "granting" them a few opportunities.

Current status

As of 2014, course ban has not been implemented.

See also

• Higher education in Iran
• Women in Iran
• Women's rights in Iran
• Hawza