Kuwait To Implement Gender Segregation At University

Kuwait plans to implement gender segregation at the university, which has been decried as a setback to freedoms in the country.

Mohammad Hayef, Kuwaiti MP, reported that Education Minister Adel Al Manea had agreed to scrap registration for attending mixed lectures as the latest signal for the ban.

Kuwait's Constitutional Court ruled in 2015 that co-education at educational institutions can be implemented by simply providing female seats and male seats inside lecture halls in response to a law prohibiting mixing.

According to Fayez Al Dhafiri, acting director of Kuwait University, the institution complies with the mixing ban. He said that, "We are working to prevent mixing at studies unless an exceptional and specific need arises."

“The university will review academic sections and cancel the mixed ones among them that are not necessary,” he said.

According to activists, the education minister's reported promise amounts to an "unjustified government bow to militancy" in a previously resolved matter.

Iqbal Al Ahmad, a Kuwaiti journalist, said, "This is a setback to Kuwait's freedom course.".

Sheikha Al Jassem, professor of philosophy at Kuwait University, described the reigniting of debate on co-education as a “regrettable matter ”.

In 2015, the Constitutional Court explained what it meant by prohibiting mixing, which meant separating seats inside the lecture hall, and not allocating sections for female students and others for males," she said, noting that females outnumber males. According to MP Mohammad Hayef, we should start the registration process over and cancel sections.

The ministerial pledge was made at a meeting between a parliamentary committee and senior education officials.

Unidentified sources told Al Qabas that the education officials not only promised to scrap mixed classes, but also promised to wear "decent dresses" on campus.

“This leaning towards scrapping the mixed classes will delay studies in some university majors,” the sources said.

This controversial plan comes in the run-up to Kuwait's new academic year, which begins on Sunday.

 

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