Saudi Arabia's New University to Let Women Unveil and Study With Men

Thursday 24 September 2009

by: David Montero | The Christian Science Monitor

Saudi Arabia's New University to Let Women Unveil and Study With Men
King Abdullah bin Abdul al-Saud visiting the Ahliyya school. (Photo: khowaga1 / Flickr)

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.

To read more about Saudi Arabia's step in the right direction, click here.

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Comments

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Will the women be permitted

Thu, 09/24/2009 - 14:54 — pappapol (not verified)

Will the women be permitted to drive to KAUST?

Pappapol makes a good point,

Thu, 09/24/2009 - 20:18 — Anonymous (not verified)

Pappapol makes a good point, but I would remind him/her "one step at a time". And for those who think that's crap I would remind them that no issue is black or white, nor are they resolved in such terms. This is just plain cool. The worst thing a country (men) can do is to accord women a second class status. It makes no sense whatsoever, especially in a modern world. You're nullifying half of your productive workforce, innovators, and contributors to society. What's also really ironic is how "green" some of the Arab states are going. Seriously. I would like to see a few articles on truthout about how the United Arab Emirates and some of their new green initiatives. They very plainly acknowledge without oil they have no economies, so they are very actively leading the charge into renewables in their locality, which is terribly expensive, but hey! when ignorant oil dependent westerners will foot the bill why the hell not!!!