In a conversation with some friends, one mentioned how girls at school are not given a chance to act or think away from the direct supervision of teachers, principals and supervisors. One of them said, “This is absurd. Those people cannot bring up our children according to their rules. That is our job at home. We have the responsibility to deal with our children’s moral behavior.”
Another friend, a lecturer at a girls’ college, said that according to new regulations, supervisors and staff members should walk around the courtyards, checking on students, monitoring what they wear, what they do and what they talk about. Now that shocked us all. Someone facetiously asked, “Why don’t they do the same in boys’ schools and universities — or is it only girls who are up to no good?”
It is obvious that no matter how we talk about the need for change, there is always a group of us who cling fiercely to the status quo. I thought about this when I read a report in Al-Watan newspaper. The paper reported that girls’ colleges are unifying disciplinary rules and it detailed all the steps that go with these rules. Reading through the list, I felt that I was reading a prison manual. The language is very inflexible and the terms used are those used when talking about criminals — from “confession” to “cases” and “interrogation.”
The rules in the paper were mainly concerned with cheating but there were other things discussed. There is a procedure to be followed when a girl is caught “outside during working hours.” She must be interrogated and sign a confession and inform either her father or a male relative what crime she is guilty of. Almost as an aside, the rule specifies that should the father not be available, the mother should be notified. But notified only; the mother is not to be treated as the responsible parent. Some man must fill in for the missing father.
Everywhere in the world, when students graduate from high school, they move to a more independent phase of their lives. Universities try to teach them how to deal with their independence, how to be individuals rather than part of a herd of sheep, to be disciplined with a stick whenever they step, no matter how slightly, apart from the herd.
To look at the matter with some sarcasm, we can imagine little scenarios that our experts in education might come up with to keep things under control. One can imagine that the next step is to give each girl an electronic chip to be worn on her wrist so the authorities can record each and every movement of her day. Maybe the chip could have a small video camera attached so the evidence would be there, thus saving the staff’s time.
Is there any point at all in telling the rule makers that these restrictions are not going to create better people? That women need to breathe a bit, that controlling every move and thought they have is not going to stop problems from arising here or anywhere? If half the population is treated with such suspicion, how can we expect women to be active, confident, productive and vital in the workplace or even at home with their children?
