Coed Classes Invite Women Without Veils to Saudi Arabia's KAUST University

KAUST - Saudi Arabia’s first coeducational university has opened with great fanfare. via LA TimesHuman Rights Watch says that Saudi Arabia’s first coeducational university, a graduate research institution known as the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, or KAUST, is a test of “whether the kingdom is prepared to expand academic freedoms and women’s rights.”

KAUST offers coed classes, Western professors, a curriculum in English and other touches considered dangerous by Islamic fundamentalists. An article in last year’s LA Times reported literature professor Amira Kashgary saying: 

“The radicals ran a wicked Internet campaign against the university. They said it is another sign liberals are invading us.”

Being built in the Saudi city of Thuwal, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is designed by HOK architects and Saudi Aramco. via Architecturalist.comPetroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali Al-Naimi, who is the chairman of KAUST’s Board of Trustees, said: “According to the king’s vision, KAUST will herald a new era of scientific and economic progress in the Kingdom. It will also increase the contributions of Arabs and Muslims to human civilization.” via Arab News

KAUST is the first university in Saudi Arabia not to educate women with male professors lucturing via a video link. Men and women mix in the classes and women are not required to wear the veil. We will follow life for women at KAUST University. Anne