reports that Yazd had completely banned women from the civil engineering and mechanical engineering programs. It has reduced the number of women accepted in other engineering programs by about a quarter. But ILNA said Yazd is also reducing the number women in many non-scientific fields, with cuts of 30 percent to 40 percent in such majors as literature, library science, psychology and economics. The originally announced goal of the state was to segregate classrooms so that men and women did not attend classes together. But the goal now appears to have shifted to ending co-education entirely. Mohammad Hassan Shojai of the Science Ministry, which oversees higher education, was quoted as saying: “Single gender universities have a higher level of scientific growth and male and female students have a higher level of psychological tranquility.” The government has not, however, identified any new campuses that will be reserved exclusively for women, leading many to suspect the real goal is actually to reduce the number of female students.
