In a move that should come as no
surprise at this point, Hamas is introducing a law that will ban mixed-sex
schools for students over the age of nine. When I first read this it struck me
as an alien and archaic notion, but I soon realized that this was likely due to
a particularly unfair lens that I wear over my common sense whenever I think of
Islamic nations. There’s nothing particularly unusual about separating the
genders in schools, even in the modern western world. The sense of incredulity
only really becomes justified when you consider that this may become a
regulated and enforced law, one which would even impose itself on the few
private schools in Gaza which allow for boys and girls to learn together. The fact
that most schools in Gaza are already segregated for the sake of tradition
should not make this new law any less pertinent. How would we, as a western
audience, respond to mixed-sex schools being flatly prohibited? The matter would not be taken lately. In Gaza,
is waving the banner of “asserting Hamas's Islamist credentials” enough justification
to enact the law? The communities there seem perfectly willing to accept it,
which speaks to the ever present—and increasingly undeniable—cultural
deviations between the east and west.
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