Kuwait: Kuwait plans to enforce gender segregation at universities, a move criticized as a setback to the country’s freedoms, local media reported.
The implementation of the ban came on Wednesday, September 14, from Kuwaiti MP Mohammed Haif, who cited Education Minister Adel Al Mane as saying that he had agreed to cancel registrations to attend mixed classes.
As per a report by Kuwait Times, Fayez Al-Dhafiri, acting director of Kuwait University, said that the university is committed to the ban on mixing.
“We are working to prevent mixing in studies unless there is an exceptional and specific need,” he added.
The decision comes in the implementation of a 1996 law to impose gender segregation at Kuwait University.
In 2015, Kuwait’s Constitutional Court ruled in favour of co-education, stating that a law prohibiting mixing in educational institutions can be enforced by dividing lecture hall seats.
On Thursday, September 14, a number of students at the College of Law, Kuwait University, staged a protest outside the university against a decision to close mixed education classes.
The Law College Students’ Society plans to file an urgent case in the administrative court to halt the closure of classes, citing it as unnecessary and disruptive.
Students were outraged by the decision because it came at the last minute when they had almost completed the registration of subjects for the upcoming semester, which opens on Sunday, September 17.
The issue sparked reactions on the X, formerly Twitter, and the hashtags #mixed_departments, #Kuwait_University, and #prevent_mixing spread were widely used.
This measure comes after a series of controversial proposals, such as a proposal to oblige women to wear Islamic dress when exercising the right to vote and run for office, and another related to banning plastic surgery and tattoos.
