Limiting female university enrollment rates‎

.: March 9, 2008

One has to admit that, for many Iranian girls, receiving a college education is the only way to ‎enter the labor market and achieve social mobility. This is precisely why female university ‎enrollment rates have continued to rise over the years in Iran.

From 1375 to 1384 (1996 to 2005), the percentage of female university enrollments in all majors ‎and fields has been 43, 43, 46, 48, 51, 52, 53, 54, 54, and 55 percent, respectively.

According to the Strategic Majlis Research Center, from that year, meaning 1384 (2005), the ‎Sanjesh organization [in charge of country’s higher education] decided to implement restrictions ‎on female enrollment rates in 26 majors in 1385 [2006] and in 39 majors in 1386 [2007] (in a ‎way that allocated 30 to 40 percent to female students and the rest to male students). ‎

The reason for that decision, according to the Strategic Majlis Research Center, was to alleviate ‎‎"problems related to increasing female presence in universities and centers of higher education." ‎

What was published two days ago in the Iranian press regarding this issue demonstrated that the ‎most important factor behind that decision was a worry that society’s economic and social power ‎relations may be altered. ‎

And the truth is exactly that! The growth in the number of female university students has ‎disrupted social relations - or, as higher education officials call it, the social "balance." Clearly, ‎a society that has a higher percentage of educated females than males will not tolerate ‎discriminatory gender laws. ‎

The policy-makers who regard the increasing number of educated women not as a sign of social ‎progress, but rather is a reason for concern, are clearly still operating in a paternalistic frame of ‎mind. As such, they conclude that, because they cannot stop the social progress of women, they ‎must change the rules of the game in order to preserve the paternalistic framework that ‎dominates family and social relations. ‎

Therefore, the main reason for limiting female university enrollment rates is to combat the ‎emerging awareness among the Iranian women who oppose discriminatory gender laws. ‎

This emerging awareness, however, is an inescapable reality that the Islamic Republic cannot ‎combat by force. Limiting female university enrollment rates may, in the short-run, suffocate the ‎talents of Iranian women. But these women certainly will find new ways of progress and ‎attaining better lives. These women will not tolerate the traditional order that is imposed on ‎them. The officials can be sure of that! ‎

Asieh AMINI © Rooz