co-education and islam

Question: What does Islam have to say regarding co-education in

schools? What are your viewpoints regarding this? Please elaborate on the
pros and cons of such a system. Two popular arguments in favor of
co-education are:
1. Co-education builds confidence in a person and makes him/her a
more complete person to live in a real world. In other words, studying in the
same-sex education system makes a person lack in self confidence.
2. Another argument given by the proponents of co-education is that a
person’s moral and Islamic values are built at home, thus neither
co-education nor same-sex education plays any part in damaging or
improving these values.
My personal argument is against co-education and I say that in
co-education environments students have more opportunity and
temptations to go astray. They cannot maintain the right etiquette of
intermingling as prescribed by the Islamic Shari‘ah, at all times during
school hours. Also, students in a co-education school might become more
consumed by how they appear or present themselves to the opposite sex
as compared to their studies. Please comment.
Answer: I think you yourself have well described the pros and cons of
subjecting students to co-education. I however would like to mention that
co-education is not an issue that has specifically been addressed by the
Shari‘ah. In other words, what we should keep in mind is the fact that
co-education has not categorically been proscribed by the Almighty.
However, there is no question about the view that it should be avoided,
keeping in view the essence of the Islamic teachings regarding gender
interaction and also the dictates of our intuition.
As far as the arguments in favor of co-education are concerned, I
believe that the strongest argument put forth by its proponents, who also
have little knowledge about Islam, is the exhortation that Islam has
extended to Muslims to allow their women into mosques and let them offer
prayer in congregation if they want to. Why on earth should it not be
allowed in schools and colleges then? To my mind, this seems to be the
strongest of all arguments offered by them since, through this, they
manipulate a religious directive in their own favor.
A little deliberation here will reveal that there is a world of difference
between the environment of a mosque and that of a school. In mosques,
we indeed have an overwhelming feeling of the presence of the Almighty.
Moreover, our intentions to visit and our concept regarding the sanctity of
the mosque make a real difference in this respect. In spite of all this, Islam
further enjoins certain etiquette to be observed by both Muslim men and
women while they are in their Lord’s House. They are never allowed to
intermingle freely or sit side by side. Ladies are directed to cover
themselves properly and men have been directed to lower their gaze of
which they become profoundly aware when they enter the sacred house. Is
the situation with schools the same? Of course not. It is for this reason that
co-education in schools and colleges must not be extrapolated on the basis
of the permission given to women to attend mosques.
As you have pointed out, the tremendous loss caused by co-education
is moral degeneration. The students are completely exposed to the
opposite sex. Curiosity plays its role well in this regard. The wrong ideals
set by the media and the awful bombardment of immoral images and
characters fill the space left out by the germs of curiosity implanted by
Satan. This reality coupled with the fact that they are mostly devoid of the
supervision of any true and sincere mentor at school in that their teachers
themselves do not present their students with a role model of morality,
cause the innocent students to fall prey to the deadly predator of sexual
impurity.
Thus, the ideal situation that springs to mind when one takes into
consideration the spirit of Islamic teachings and dictates of common sense
is that provision of separate class rooms for male and female students is
imperative. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the government to make
necessary arrangements in order to realize this end. However, in my
opinion, if in a developing country like Pakistan, the government is unable
to provide separate classes for both sexes, they must take necessary steps
to ensure that morality still plays an important role while deciding the
curricular and extra-curricular activities of the institute in question. The
underlying reason for this allowance is the stark reality that it is better to
have some female doctors educated in an environment of co-education
than to have our mothers and sisters be compelled to expose their private
parts to male doctors in the time of ailment. Another step that the
government must take in this regard is that they should very carefully
choose the faculty of their institutes. All the teachers must be an
embodiment of the values of decency and goodness. If these measures are
taken, I am hopeful that the possibility of going astray will greatly decrease;
though those at the helm of the state affairs will still be required to sincerely
strive to provide separate campuses to their scholars, as soon as their
funds allow them to.