assalam-o-laikum!

My question is that 'is coeducation is allowed in islam or not'?

Amber
Islamabad

ANSWER:

WaAlaikum Assalam and thank you for contacting dear Ambar!

Co-education is an alien idea for the Islamic society. We do not find any good social or economic reason for it. Only, that the primary level children may be educated together. Beyond the age of about 9-10 years, girls must be provided separate premises and lady teachers and instructors. Unless we are blind or indifferent to the grave consequences, no one will dare question why Islam demands gender segregation in our social contacts.

Co-education is only one dimension of the bigger issue. Islam’s position on gender segregation is well articulated in the Qur’an (al-Ahzab, al-Noor) and Sunnah and manifested in the injunctions concerning "Hijab". In exceptional cases, and for very specialized areas, teachers and instructors of the opposite sex could be allowed particularly where teacher-student age gap would only inspire mutual respect. Otherwise, we find no sound economic and social reason why students of the two sexes be necessarily grouped together, particularly after they have reached the age of maturity. We now have more than enough evidence and alarming statistics about total degeneration in societies where co-education has been a norm since long.

Wassalam,

M. Haq

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