The gender segregation effort began a year ago as a movement to segregate classes in universities so that male and female students would not be seated side-by-side. But the movement has shifted dramatically in recent weeks,
Universities have been announcing lists of majors from which women will be banned this coming term. While many are in the sciences and engineering and appear dedicated to restoring “traditional” gender roles, some universities have been banning women from library science and other majors that might be viewed as traditional female roles.
That has sparked concern that the state is moving firmly not just to segregate classes, but also to end co-education altogether and shift some campuses to all-male and others to all-female.
Then, this past week brought the announcement that men are to be barred from nursing.
Iran’s Nursing Association objected loudly, pointing out that nursing was opened to men because of the great shortage of nurses in the country. It said the nursing school quota of 20 percent male students was recently boosted to 40 percent because of the shortage before being dropped to zero percent now.
The Nursing Association website said, “The decision to eliminate male applicants for nursing is shocking and against national policies and the needs of patients.”
The new policy did not explain what will happen to the male nurses currently working in the nation’s hospitals.
The government has also not said if women will be barred from all science and engineering fields or if all-female universities will be permitted to teach such courses. The public has not been told what the state’s new educational policies are. All that is heard is announcements on courses that are now being closed to women as individual universities announce them.