Banning “Burning Hearts”: Leading Saudi Cleric Calls for Women To Be Barred From Co-Ed University Classes

Previously, we saw a crackdown in Saudi Arabia on women working out at private clubs and the cancelation of festivals. Now, Sheik Saad Bin Naser al-Shethri, who is a member of the powerful government-sanctioned Supreme Committee of Scholars, is calling for the end of women being able to attend any co-ed classes in universities as a “great sin and a great evil.”

Al-Shethri wants to bar women at the newly opened King Abdullah Science and Technology University, warning “[m]ixing is a great sin and a great evil. When men mix with women, their hearts burn and they will be diverted from their main goal (which is) … education.” Burning hearts have not been a particular problem in my co-ed law classes but then again it is hard to spot cardiac combustion from the lectern.

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