Iran has stepped up gender separation in universities, with a number of universities already announcing that men and women will be taught in separate classes, and the government saying further requests by universities would be looked on positively.
President of Allameh Tabatabai University in Tehran, Seyed Sadredin Shariati, announced in January that separation of men and women would be implemented for subjects with large numbers of students.
In a bid to dispel fears that the university might provide a lower quality education to women, he stressed it did not mean separate courses, rather separate teaching for men and women in different classes.
Male and Female students in Iran already sit in separate rows in lecture theatres and classrooms. University libraries and canteens also have segregated areas.
Reza Ameri, general director of supervision and evaluation of higher education in the Ministry of Science, said last week that the ministry would create separate-gender institutions in areas where there was "demand".
In remarks carried in the official Mehr news agency, he said education in Iran in the 21st century had to respond to "different tastes and demands".
Ameri said segregation was already underway in some colleges in Tehran, and that more applications (from universities) for separate classes would be considered.
He revealed that there had already been requests to the ministry for separate-gender institutions in the Iranian capital, and in the religious cities of Qom and Mashhad.
Ferdowsi University's department of Engineering in Mashhad imposed segregation on more than 49 general and laboratory courses from the start of the new academic term this year, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) reported in January. Last year only a few general courses at Ferdowsi, such as general mathematics and physics, imposed separate classes for men and women.
When we are old and grey, what will we look back on and wish we did differently? What memories will we cherish, what choices will we regret?
