Voices of Youth

Many universities all over Iran have a ban on women attending university for 77 different majors; this includes accounting, counselling and engineering for this school year.

The universities have not given a reason for the ban. Iranian officials have expressed alarm in the country's declining marriage and birth rates; many believe that this is caused by women's rising educational attainment. Human Rights Watch urged the Iranian government to reverse the more restrictive policies. They said these restrictions are a violation of the international right to education for everyone without any discrimination, including sex discrimination. Women make up a majority of college students in Iran. In fact a whopping 60% of those who passed this year's college entrance exam in Iran were women.

Most of the banned majors are high-paying fields where women have had a much greater presence in recent years. These majors, like engineering and applied science, don’t seem to follow a pattern and were arbitrary.