By Ashraf Abdul-Wahab.
Tripoli, 24 September 2103:
The Ministry of Education has issued a decision stating that it will not to segregate male . . .[restrict]and female students in schools and universities. The reason, it says, is because this would damage people’s education because the vast majority of teachers are females.
The Ministry added that another of the reasons for rejecting segregation was that many parents disapproved of the idea. It had received many letters from parent stating their opposition to the idea.
Segregation is a main demand by many Islamists in Libya. Last week, Derna University was told by members of a local brigade widely viewed as Islamist that it must separate male and female students if the brigade were to provide security at the campus.
In January, Zawia Congressman Mohamed Al-Kilani called for segregation in Congress, blaming its shortcomings on the fact that men and women are not kept apart in it.
The Grand Mufti, Sheikh Sadid Al-Ghariani has also entered the debate. Last year he said that ideally male and female students should be separated but that it would be too costly for Libya to set up separate schools and colleges to address the situation. However, in April this year, in open letter to the President of Congress, the Prime Minister, other members of Congress and the government as well as militia leaders and civil society organsiations, he said that free mixing of the sexes in educational and financial establishments as well as at universities, government offices, companies and hospitals was immoral. The authorities must end to it, he said. [/restrict]
