WUNRN
Radio Free Europe
IRAN - SEPARATE TEXTBOOKS, SEPARATE
SCHOOLS - GENDER SEGREGATION
By RFE/RL - February
19, 2012
"In the next year, comprehensive education reforms will occur in all
fields, including teachers, classes, books, and teaching methods,"
Hajibabai said, without revealing any specifics.
This latest development in gender segregation comes after the Education
Ministry issued a directive in August that expanded gender separation of
schoolchildren to preschools.
Gender segregation in schools was gradually introduced in
In 2009, Hojatoleslam Nabiollah Fazlali, the representative of Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology, made
a heated attack on the co-education system.
Fazlali criticized coed universities, saying that allowing male and female
students in the same class is like "putting meat in front of a cat."
Gender segregation has long been a feature of Iranian society. Men and women
are often kept separate in public places like schools and also sometimes at
public weddings.
Written by Frud Bezhan