Iranian Parliament's Plan for University Entrance' Sexual Quota

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Iranian Parliament's Plan for University Entrance Sexual Quota (Persian: سهمیه‌بندی جنسیتی در دانشگاه‌های ایران) refers to a plan proposed by several Iranian parliamentarian to restrict the increasing presence of female students at Iranian Universities.

[edit] Background

Until 1998, the number of male students was naturally more than female students in Iranian Universities as male students had a higher score in the entrance exam. Since 1998, Iranian women succeed in performing better in entrance exams and subsequently they become a majority in most disciplinces in Universities.

In April 2003, It has been proposed by Ministry of Higher Education that in some disciplines like Agriculture, physiotherapy, material science and Medicine, 50% of the positions need to be given to males and 50% to females. This proposal was put into practice for one year and it was hugely protested by Iranian parliametarians. 156 MPs wrote a letter to president to stop the plan. Iranian president Mohammad Khatami stopped the plan and it has not been practiced since then. However, Iranian minister of health and medical education Masoud Pezeshkian, has steadfastly defended the decision that his ministry had made. To justify this discriminatory act, Pezeshkian, has argued that since in Iran a woman is obligated by law to reside where her husband chooses to live and not the other way around, then by allowing women to become doctors at a high percentage rate, the authorities are in effect depriving people in remote areas from receiving medical care.^[1]

In 2006, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government began the practice of such a partitioning in Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy. In a response to critics, Iranian minister of health and medical education, Kamran Bagheri Lankarani argued that there is not enough facility and dormitories for female students. Masoud Salehi, president of Zahedan University said that presence of women generates some problems with transportations. Also Ebrahim Mekaniki, president of Babol University of Medical Sciences stated that an increase in the presence of women will not let us to distribute the facilities in a suitable manner. Bagher Larijani, the president of Tehran University of Medical Sciences also made similar remarks. Since the establishment of Ahmadinejad's government such restrictions have been practiced without legal foundation and justified to be a support for valuing the concept of "family" and "religion".

[edit] The plan

In 2007 several MPs proposed a plan to Iranian parliament thet officially restrict the presence of women in all branches and all universities. The plan has been proposed by the followings: