By Hala Al-Qahtani
Al-Watan
THE women community has been a mysterious one until recently. No one knew its secrets and problems or how its members thought. Women were surrounded by prohibitions and breaching it was considered as a major sin. After a period of time, we have seen those prohibitions lifted by the grace of God. Unfortunately, some of these prohibitions have started coming back.
During our school days we witnessed unannounced raids and inspections by school officials. This started at the intermediate school and continued until we left the secondary school. We were warned against showing off beauty or using any cosmetics, even natural ones, and we were forced to hide them by all means as we were forced to believe that looking beautiful obscene and a big sin.
In those days the school officials used to play the policing role. They conduct sudden inspections in the middle of class to seize combs and cosmetics. They looked at all students with suspicion and asked them to put their bags on the table and hold their hands behind so that they will not be able to hide those “weapons.” If anyone of us were found keeping a comb would be punished in front of others.
I still remember that unfortunate day when an inspector found an eyeliner in the possession of one of my classmates. She was brought to the stage during morning parade and was abused in front of other students. Even though the girl swore that she did not use the eyeliner, the teacher forced her to clean her eyelids with a towel as a warning lessor to other students who would dare to use eyeliners or combs in future.
School authorities continue to fight any attempt by girls to show their feminine features during intermediate and secondary levels. Even those girls, whose faces were reddened as a result of exertion, cold, fear or excitement, were questioned. The most disgusting thing is the inspectors’ reluctance to say sorry to the children when they fail to find any signs of using cosmetics and, instead they would warn them against any attempt to apply cosmetics in future.
Even the school uniform was not exempted from suspicion those days. Girls who wore tight and short dresses were abused. Inspectors accused them of obscenity and charged them with intentionally showing off their body and beauty despite the fact that most families were not able to provide their children new uniforms at the beginning of every academic year.
When we reached secondary level, we used to wear gown-like uniforms thinking that we would not be accused of obscenity. We also wore sports shoes intentionally so that we would not be accused of walking in a special way to draw public attention. We thought that it would save us from accusations and win the appreciation of the school officials.
It is appalling to hear that 27 girl students have been suspended from a university in one go for violations that include shortening and dying of hair, using cosmetics and ornaments, wearing sports dress and a special kind of shoes. They were also accused of walking like men and not tying their hair. By making such charges we are admitting there are gays in our society.
There may be reasons for an increase in the number of homosexuals in our society but we should not accuse students of being gays without any evidence and this goes against educational principles.
The media department at the university has confirmed that a final decision on the girls would be taken only after a thorough follow-up on their cases that will last for eight months and it will include warning, guidance and counseling.
The media department said it was extremely sorry for being forced to take such a stringent decision on the basis of educational principles and moral duty because such violations went against the institution’s discipline and would harm others. It did not mention how the university would deal with such issues in future. Mistakes made by women will not be forgotten and forgiven easily at a time when counseling and rehabilitation has become reserved for suspects in terrorism cases.
The move to kill feminism starts from school days, making false accusations and spreading malicious and poisonous believes. Educational institutions in the past have done injustice to generations of female students. Unfortunately, the ill-treatment of girls still continues in one way or other, and has reached the universities.
Some of these students overcame those mental pressures they suffered during school days while others could not. Whatever happens in this world has a reason and it does not come from a vacuum. When things become complicated we do not get enough courage to address the true reasons. We deal with the final result and impose the strictest punishment on the victims as usual, allowing the actual perpetrator to escape unnoticed.
