Saudi Arabia’s new university to let women unveil and study with men
The King Abdullah Science and Technology University opened Wednesday is meant to break ground on Saudi Arabia’s scientific learning and gender norms.
By David Montero | Correspondent 09.24.09
For the first time in Saudi Arabia’s history, men attending a university north of Jeddah will have special classmates – women.
The conservative country unveiled on Wednesday its first ever fully coed university, the King Abdullah Science and Technology University (KAUST). In the past, women in the notoriously gender restrictive kingdom were only allowed to take classes separately from men.
The inauguration of KAUST is meant to signal two important developments: a lauded, if politically volatile, softening of hard-line rules, and the kingdom’s rising ambitions of being a hub of scientific learning. Both aims, Saudi Arabia’s rulers hope, will help blunt the impact of extremism.
The university’s lavish inauguration on Wednesday met with glowing praise, according to this description from Arabnews.com:
Breathtaking, spectacular and just amazing. That is how Wednesday’s inauguration ceremony of the multibillion-dollar King Abdullah University of Science and Technology was described by a large section of the nearly 3,000 guests that included prominent Saudis, foreign leaders, Nobel laureates, researchers, scientists and journalists.
Women guests in the audience carried along by the heady atmosphere of excitement and expectation spontaneously broke into traditional ululation, a sign of joy and good will.
There’s a lot for women to be happy about, as Al Jazeera reports:
[T]he new university will not require women to wear veils or cover their faces, and they will be able to mix freely with men.
They will also be allowed to drive, a taboo in a country where women must literally take a back seat to their male drivers.
The university’s relaxed rules appear to be part of a larger softening of gender segregation, as the Christian Science Monitor recently reported:
Agents of the feared Saudi Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice are responsible for enforcing the restaurant rules. But these days, things have been relaxed a bit and it is possible for a group of foreigners who include unrelated men and women to dine together without incident. And in Jeddah, the commission’s enforcers have been banned from entering restaurants to spy on groups or couples who might be disobeying the gender segregation rules that offer a unique dining experience.
The opening of KAUST is seen as a decisive step in an ongoing battle with the kingdom’s extremist elements, as Reuters notes:
King Abdullah has promoted reforms since taking office in 2005 to create a modern state, stave off Western criticisms and lower dependence on oil.
But he faces resistance from conservative clerics and princes in Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s top oil exporters.
Al Qaeda militants launched a campaign against the state in 2003, blaming the royal family for corruption and opposing its alliance with the United States…
<< Three charged for dogfighting at Chicago daycare | MainOfficials who back Abdullah fear that without reforms young people will be drawn to militancy in the future.
Comments
2. Julia I. Chapman | 09.24.09
Thank you to all who have opened their minds to minds that can partake and contribute to the scientific world. It is a tribute given to all of us on the planet. Gender separation can make for short views in decision making and progression into the next findings. We most definitely need both sides of the “story.” As life is life no matter where we live on this very small planet.
Thank you to the Christian Science Monitor for this reporting.
Respectively,
Julia I. Chapman/Student
3. Basem B. | 09.24.09
First, get your facts right. Whom ever said that women in SA are required to wear veils or cover their faces? That’s a mistaken stereotype about SA. Women are free to to wear/not wear veils or cover their faces. it is totally her choice to do so.
As for driving, women drive in SA, and you can see that in small towns and villages where women depend on themselves rather on their men (spouse, children, etc..), however the government has never declared prohibition on womens’ driving, it is just a cultural issue that has to be overcomed.
However, the fact mentioned that women “take a back seat to their male drivers” is a complete false statement. The only time where women ride in the back seat is if she rides in a cab or with her driver (isn’t that the what everyone int the world does, including men?).
5. True | 09.24.09
This mean More MMS more arabic sex video will hit the net.
someday man n woman will pray together in same line .someday man n woman will touch each other shoulder n will give less attention to pray.
Mr king abdulla breaking the rules of the great one… insallah insallah The Great One will give him his earned rearward.
7. Next | 09.24.09
What next coed mosque….Mr… coed maker breaking the rules of the great one… insallah insallah The Great One will give him his earned rearward.
9. Tom | 09.24.09
Basem B.? Please get your facts right.
http://www.reuters.com/article/basicindustries-SP-A/idUSL1071429920071210
10. alvin she | 09.24.09
this is just shows to what extent the rulers of saudi arabia are willing to bend their backs backward to please the zioamericans and their liberal goals
before king abdullah did that ataturk did the same and far worst
the question is what good does it do to research and science and learning to have men with no veil study with horny saudi men ? it serves no purpose other than change the schools from place of learning to a place of whoring
shame on king abdullah who abandons the teaching of his prophet to please the americans and shame on all who follow his path
11. dottie | 09.24.09
Educated women will stop the wars of hate and teach that Love has more power for progress than ignorance of revenge.
12. mike | 09.24.09
Small steps lead to big steps. I think Saudi Arabia is beginning to understand that religious control of human spirit is impossible. Evolution is unstoppable. People are sexual creatures by nature. We must embrace this and not fear it. We must be free to make mistakes and evolve as a race. I have no doubt that this action will have a down side with people’s pent up anxieties unleashed. I commend the government for embracing a more mature approach to sexuality. Don’t hide it, respect it. In the end, people will adapt to the change and not fear it so much. Then one day, Saudi college students will think nothing of this and laugh at their parents for having to deal with this.
13. finchy | 09.24.09
Alvin S., I as an American (and definitely not a Zionist, in the way that you mean it) am not interested in King Abdullah making positive and progressive change in S.A. to please Americans or anyone else outside S.A. I am glad that he is seeking to humanize life for Saudi women, and perhaps teach young Saudi men how to relate to young Saudi women outside of all the stupid strictures which Wahabbi interpretations of Islam seeks to force on everyone. Get out of your ultra-puritannical, paranoid mindframe and be a human being. I teach lots of Muslim students in my university classes in the U.S., most of whom, males and females, are from S.A. They haven’t suffered for living in our society, and I haven’t seen them go “wild” whatsoever.
14. Basem B. | 09.24.09
9. Tom.
Don’t just believe everything the media says, do your due diligence. I am a Saudi and I am telling you, that’s not true. Women have owned cars for a long time, they just don’t drive them. That’s due to the culture of Saudi Arabia, where almost every family has it’s own driver, that’s in the big cities. If you go to smaller towns and villages, you can see them driving by themselves.
Please, don’t just believe what the media says.
15. editorial | 09.24.09
Since there’s some interest on what restrictions Saudi Arabia has on women and driving, two stories:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0424/p01s04-wome.htm
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1208/p07s02-wome.html
16. Ataturk | 09.24.09
Avin, I think you had a Freudian slip in your post. You meant to say “Women with no veil studying with horny men…” Instead you said, “men with no viel studying with men…” I lived in Saudi. How many Saudi school age boys get raped or have consentual sex with other boys or men? No one will talk about but it is the huge problem-particularly rape of men by men that everyone knows who has been in the kingdom a bit. The absolute seperation of men and women leads to a very messed up society. And, the viel certainly has nothing to do with Islam… Only A’isha wore a viel…none of his other wives did. The bigger question is this. What is KSA today? It is a petrol station for the world- nothing more. It develops nothing, invents nothing, builds nothing… In the 1100-1600’s, Islam meant development and prosperty… Islam and the Arabs developed alegebra, the zero, much of modern medicine etc. This you know. Islam and the Arab world has allowed itself to be hijacked by the likes of you. You scorn the West in one breath, but your mentality leads the Arab world into permenant dependence on it. The West imports oil…What doesn’t the Arab world import? I have very little faith in the future of Saudi Arabia, but maybe King Abudullah can make a difference.
17. Not Surprised | 09.25.09
BASEM B.
I AM SURE YOU ARE NOT SAUDI.
ENTAH ZALAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMAH!
Yes, others are right, PLEASE GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!
FACE THE FACTS AND THE TRUTH, so OPPRESSED PEOPLE CAN BE HELPED!
18. Han lee | 09.25.09
It’s a good start to bring science back to the middle east. Islam kill scientific innovations,arts,music,but The primary reason why the Saudis crated this university was to keep their citizen home.
For many decade Saudi families end their kids in the United states for Study but since 2001 a lot of things change.The second reason is to copy china and other emerging nations who invest vast amount of their wealth in R&D as an investment in the future.
The Saudis are best know for spending billions in useless American Cadillacs abandoned to rust in the desert.Or to dilapidate trillions in Switz hotel with European top models,French casinos where they were guarantied to loose.
Now they reached the staged of weasedom when they realized that oil money is not for ever and other countries like India and japan can create vast wealth without oil.Young Saudis are top spender who travel the world for pleasure until they decide to come back to Islamic fundamentalist when they get totally disillusioned by the very excess they created.Osama is a good example of that profile.Once a young pleasure seeker playboy, now an aged mountain rate somewhere in Afghanistan.
19. Enlightened | 09.25.09
Han Le, please get your facts straight, they are so horribly off, it’s laughable. First off, Islam never killed scientific thought. The Arab and Muslim world flourished with knowledge when Europe was experiencing their dark ages. That was also when the Muslim empires embraced Islam. The further they have moved away from Islam, that is when Muslims began to slip into their dark age which is what we are seeing today.
Also, Osama bin Laden was never a playboy. He was an extremist from the very beginning when he was fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan when he was in his 20s.
20. sleepy in saudi | 09.25.09
Basem, I live in Saudi now for 11 years. In Riyad, no Saudi woman would dare to show her face on the street for fear of reprisal from some self appointed religious busybody telling her to cover. Its easier for them to just go with the flow. Non Saudi muslim women dont have to cover but they do anyway because the stupid shabab take an uncovered face as license to harass. Heck they even harass the covered women. Its all about male control of the female . Men here have no shame or self control.
22. Amir Yahya | 09.25.09
This is most likely to placate some princesses who might otherwise travel elsewhere for education. KSA is not a conservative country: it is absolute monarchy. Human rites is a more important issue. None the less- it is a Muslim country which ideally should not concern kafir(s) in their daily progress to the hell fire.
24. Matt | 09.26.09
This just shows how pathetic this world is. To be even talking about this, let alone be writing an actual article about it, is ridiculous and embarrassing. This is hardly a sign of progress; rather, it simply goes to show just how fanatical and tragic this world is. “Letting” women take off their veils? “Letting” them take classes with men? Sorry to burst your bubbles but a country that is hundreds of years back as far as civil rights is nothing to be proud of or brag about. Nobody has the right to tell anyone what they can and cannot do. Instead of framing this article as a victory and something to be proud of, the the focus should be on just how tragic the situation is. Rather than always being politically correct, it’s really time to recognize that many muslim countries have become abusive, totalitarian states; they do not deserve to be praised, they deserve to be ridiculed.
25. Who cares. | 09.26.09
Close all the “girls only” public and private schools in the U.S. and maybe you won’t seem like such hypocrites.Or is it only okay for man to be forced to take classes with women ,but not the other way around?
26. tahera | 09.27.09
I am an expatriot living in Saudi Arabia for the last 11 years.I came from a country which has co-ed system. People go uot for dating etc. So I have seen both. All these years i was living and had a job in Hospital, I never veiled my face or had any problem for that. All the american and british non muslims working here DOES NOT cover thier face. But they do cover thier hair. They had seperate university and medical college for women. Lady doctors treat and operatebothe male and female
“For the first time in Saudi Arabia’s history, men attending a university north of Jeddah will have special classmates – women”——as for this comment, class mates are same men and women. Why would it be so special to have men in a class? I never felt any differece when I did my MBBS.
29. Reality | 09.27.09
@Ataturk: Much of the developments and inventions claimed by Muslims as as theirs have been developed by others. This includes the two you so proudly state: The zero and Algebra. The concept of zero as a number and not just a symbol for separation was used first by Indian scholars (between 5th-2nd century BC). The origins of Algebra goes back to the ancient Babylonians (long before Islam). Subsequently Indian, Greek, Chinese and, much later, Persians developed it further into what became known as Algebra. All this happened before Mohammed was even born. So don’t give Islam credit where it doesn’t belong.
30. Kholood Asiri | 09.29.09
Basam,
I am a Saudi women so stop fooling every one. Yes some women own cars, and yes some may drive them in distant villages or deserts. But the majority of us are not ALLOWED TO DRIVE!!. In fact, those who have tried have been arrested. So stop the crap. it is OK to admit we have problems. That does not make us less of a nation. The west have thier share of problems as well. In order to change we must be humble enough to admit.
31. Md. Masum Miah | 09.29.09
Alhamdulillah, a praise worthy step to the Muslim Ummah. But one thing we the authority should maintain and that is the quality of education as well as the Islamic shariah. Best regards and wishes for the Varsity.
32. cb | 10.02.09
The Arabs did not invent algebra or zero, the Babylonians were the first to use zero (as a place holder), India was the first to develop algebra and the concept of zero. The Arabs brought it to the West.
33. tabassum | 10.20.09
iam reallyproud that saudi arabia is coming with such an opportunity for women to come forward and get educated.i dont think there is anything ridiculous about it when somebody is coming towards education.infact i think its time for everyone to open there eyes and welcome the coming opportunity.
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1. Well Wisher | 09.24.09
There is hope for the world now. The KSA is finally coming out of the Dark Ages. Let us all embrace science rather than superstitions and save the world.