IIUI female students stage protest against unnecessary restrictions

ISLAMABAD: In a first, female students of the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) protested over the restrictive campus atmosphere and unnecessary restrictions introduced by the administration for them.

The protests come a week after a faculty of the IIUI introduced a new dress code for girls.



A large number of students carried placards inscribed with their woes and shouted slogans against the restrictions. They rallied and staged a sit-in on one of the main roads in the heart of the university.

“Uber and Careem are drivers, not our boyfriends” screamed one placard.

The university maintains strict segregation between the male and female campuses which run parallel and has previously asked students living at its hostel not to share beds and ‘maintain distance’.



Although the male students can come and go at will, female students are not allowed to leave the campus before the day’s end without showing permission slips to guards at the gates. These slips are issued only by their department heads, or other assisting staff after students provide a ‘genuine reason’ to leave the campus early.

Recently the varsity also issued a circular asking its female students to strictly adhere to a ‘traditional dress code’, warning that anyone found violating the code would face strict disciplinary action.

The administration’s main such restrictions are part of distinctive university culture and for the safety and honour of female students.



The students have complained about such restrictions imposed only for female students but never had they protested against it collectively.

On Monday, the students came out in large numbers to register their protest against the restrictive atmosphere after a student was roughed up by the security guards.

The students said that a few days ago a student and driver of Uber were molested for not having the requisite permission slips.

“They see everyone with suspicion and pass inappropriate remarks and even taunt whenever a student leaves the campus before 2.30pm,” said a protesting student.



“The students are not even allowed to leave the campus for combined studies,” said another student, both of them refusing to share their names for fear of retribution.

The students complained that due to the unnecessary restrictions, security guards often harass and blackmail students and even their family members who come to pick or drop them, even if the students show permission slips.

Meanwhile, even some teachers complained that the guards even stop the teachers unless they show their employee card.



The attitude of the security guards is humiliating as the administration has given them unlimited powers, he a teacher said while requesting anonymity.

“Students and teachers, who are the main stakeholders, have no respect and say here. Actually, the president who comes from Saudi Arabia and has been imposing his rules for females like those in his own country,” she alleged.

The students said no university imposes such restrictions.

They demanded that the security guard who had misbehaved with students should be suspended, the bookshop and international café should be reopened for female students.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2017.