though it has not gone so far as to order universities to cease to be co-ed.
The Science Ministry, which oversees higher education in Iran, said that allowing men and women to mingle on campus is a sign that Western values have not yet been expunged from the Islamic Republic’s education system.
Primary and secondary education have long been segregated under the Islamic Republic, with separate schools for boys and girls, but universities have never been segregated.
The goal of the decree appeared to be to enforce separate classes for men and women, though how it could enforce gender segregation outside the classroom without ending co-education remained unclear.
Science Minister Kamran Daneshju suggested that where separate laboratories and computer rooms could not be set up, times could be reserved for each gender in those facilities.
“The gender segregation rule must be enforced so long as it does not bring a halt to routine activities,” Daneshju said.
No deadline for the beginning of segregated campuses was given. That raised questions as to whether the order was intended mainly to satisfy some hardline pressure groups and would not be policed by the Science Ministry.
Daneshju is an appointee of President Ahmadi-nejad, who has shown no patience with gender segregation. Several years ago, Ahmadi-nejad ordered an end to the ban on women attending soccer games. The uproar from many clerics was swift and vocal. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi personally rescinded that presidential order.
The university system is undergoing much upheaval nowadays as the clerical authorities have ordered a revamping of the curriculum so that the teaching of the arts and sciences is Islamicized and Western values are stripped away.
Daneshju put his segregation order in that context. “The problem is our universities were build on Western values … that are not compatible with Iranian-Islamic values,” he said.